Start Learning - Distance Learning Experts

How can we combat Bullying!

Bullying can be one of the most negative experiences in someone’s life with over 25% of people who were bullied in childhood saying they had suffered long term harmful affects lasting into adulthood. Over 31% of children have experienced bullying and a further 7% believed they were discriminated against. Bullying can happen to someone at any age and in the work place as well as in school.

Bullying in the workplace can have particularly negative connotations and many people feel they are picked on because they are weak. On the Life After Adult Bullying website they remind us that this is not always the case, it can be simply because you are at the wrong place at the wrong time, you are good at your job, you are popular, you have exposed the bully’s fears, you get more attention or you having a distinctive set of values.

In the work place unacceptable behaviour can be overlooked because people in senior positions are just ‘directive’, know what they want, or as in the case of Gordon Brown believe they are too passionate. Sometimes this can be known as HIPPO (Highest Paid Persons Opinion) and it can feel impossible to get across your opinions or to be treated with even basic levels of respect. The reality is that bullies seldom realise they are bullying and will excuse their behaviour with any number of weak excuses.

Start Learning passionately believes that all bullying should be tackled and that no body should be made to feel afraid or have their self respect taken from them.

Distance Learning can be a revelation for people who have suffered in classroom environment with bullying and other anti social behaviour, finally they have the chance to learn in their own time without any other pressures or fears.

For those that want to be able to help people who have experienced bullying then a course in NLP or CBT will give you the skills to help people overcome their past experiences and move on to a happy healthy life.

Do childhood ambitions really impact on your life?

In 1969, 14,000 11 year olds were commissioned to write an essay about their future ambitions by the Centre of Longitudinal Studies. The aim was to give a snapshot of the minds of children of the 60’s but now, in an exciting twist, researchers have approached the same people, at 51 years old, to see how their lives turned out.

 

There is a genuine correlation between those who are ambitious as children and those who achieve high levels of success. Woman already had an idea that they wanted more from life and many had career ambitions besides being a wife and mother.

 

You can read more about the lives of the authors here and see how their lives turned out compared to their ambitions.

 

Distance Learning is a great way to be able to achieve childhood ambitions while maintaining your career, giving you the time to pursue a long held interest like art history or criminology, or retrain for a new career in psychology or web design.

Will we be ready for 2012?

The Winter Olympics is now underway after a shaky start, but more than 75% of Canadians fear that the project will be over budget. This combined with a tragic death on the first day of the games proves that no matter how committed, an Olympic Games is not guaranteed success.

What can we do to make sure that we maximise the value of the 2012 London games, bringing long term benefits to the UK. Training is a really easy way to do this, you can see the benefit to your business straight away and it will mean you have a more profitable games. But you will also get the long term benefits of having a better trained workforce and more committed employees.

At Start Learning we saw an increase in demand for construction courses over the last couple of years in London as infrastructure preparations took place, and now that demand has really shifted to customer service and customer care.  We have also seen a increase in demand for IT courses particularly our CompTIA A+ course showing that the need to invest in IT is also increasing.

 

The Lions of Yorkshire

Doncaster is now home to 13 new lions after they were rescued from a run down Romanian zoo.

The north of England doesn’t boast the same warm temperatures as Africa but this pride of lions will be very glad to have grass beneath their feet after being rescued from a concrete enclosure.

In Doncaster the lions will have a state of the art lion enclosure in a seven acre compound all funded from a £150,000 appeal last summer.

The conditions the lions were in were so bad that four adult lions were squeezed into a 15ft by 12ft concrete square. To read more about the rescue click here.

The Yorkshire Wildlife Park still needs an additional £25,000 to fully equip the enclosure. You can find out more about them here.

If you are interested in animal care we have a range of courses covering animal behaviour as well as other skills like dog grooming (I wouldn’t suggest trying to groom a Lion). There are also specific biology courses including one focusing on Ichthyology.

The New National Trust

Are you in love with original features? Keen to restore property to its former glory? Then you will be happy to know that the National Trust are now completely reinventing the way people access their properties.

In some properties they will have "After The Party Rooms" which will look as through a party has just finished with left over glasses of wine and cast off coats.

You will also be able to sit on the furniture and cosy up to a blazing fire or try on some period costumes. This new approach to the National Trust is being piloted in Seaton Delaval.

The National Trust want the properties to become the hub of community life not just museums to a bygone age. Read more about their plans here.

If you fancy doing some restoration for yourself have you considered our Property Development course?

The Expenses Scandal Again!

A storm has kicked up around MP expenses as it is revealed that 390 MPs have to pay back expenses totaling more than £1 million. The severity has also been ratcheted up with 6 MPs waiting to hear if they will be criminally charged. Read more about the latest revelations here.

This has lead many to consider the make up of our government and question the status quo. Over the last couple of months we have seen more students studying for out A Level in Government and Politics. We think this is very much a response to the current climate. It seems that individuals really want to understand why we are in the situation we are in and how we can change it.

We have also seen a resurgence in interest in Economics as our A Level in Economics has also seen increased student enrols. Our students tell us they really want to understand the details behind the financial nightmare instead of being passive observers.

At Start Learning we encourage all interest in learning and understanding the world around you is some of the most valuable.

What We Can Learn from Advent

Yesterday we learned about the collapse of Advent Training one of the largest IT Training Providers in the UK after their funding was cut. This was a travesty for their thousands of students, who had a great experience with Advent and were keen to continue their studies.  Their business model was built on students taking out a loan for their course from the bank, and when funding was cut it left them in an impossible situation.

At Start Learning our business is different in 5 key ways:

We keep our prices affordable - A MCDST course with us costs just £395.

We keep our quality high - Because we have exclusive relationships and own much of our content we do not need to pay high royalty fees. In fact Advent’s materials were supplied by our parent company.

We don’t do loans or monthly payments - With our affordable prices we believe you can save to study, if you need to.

We pay our tutors up front - We believe that you get the best from a tutor who is paid to support you as a student, not paid per item marked.

We send out all your materials at the start - So you have everything you paid for with you throughout your studying journey.

If you purchase a course with Start Learning and change your mind for any reason you have a full week to return it to us – no questioned asked. We want you to be happy with our products and services as well as your decision.