Mastering Mentoring

On Friday 25th July Vision were the proud hosts of a Business Champions event, welcoming business leaders from across the East Midlands region.

In line with the Business Champions ongoing commitment to train its members, Vision was chosen to deliver a Mastering Mentoring workshop. Some of those issues explored in this workshop are listed below:

What is/isnt mentoring?
Benefits for the mentee/mentor.
Roles and boundaries of the mentor/mentee
Tools and techniques acquisition
Qualities of a great mentor
Get the most out the mentor-mentee relationship

The event proved a huge success, with 80% of attendees claiming that the session had surpassed their expectations, and variously describing the workshop as thought provoking, Enlightening, Challenging very useful, fun, rewarding, Excellent, and well worth the time commitment.

Vision welcomes these endorsements as confirmation that we are attaining our goal of delivering the very best in skills training.

We now look forward to the next Business Champions workshop we will be delivering - Understanding Leadership on the 6th August ? with great anticipation.

Beyond that, Vision has two private workshops coming up in the autumn:

· Engage Your Workforce Programme on 24th September - 60% of this workshops places have already been taken.

· Performance Coaching for Leaders Programme 9th October - 70% of this workshops places have already been taken.

These two daylong workshops (priced at £265 p/p) have limited places available and are already booking up fast?

For more information, feel free to contact us on 0115 941 82 42 or email us on info@visionconsulttraining.co.uk

Vision are proud to host the 'Women and power circle'

Rosjke Hasseldine is facilitating this Women and Money Power Circle because it is time women get real about their relationship with money. Women have yet to fully embrace their finanacial value. We have yet to really see how money reflects the value others and we ourselves put on our time and skills. Legislation alone, as the Equal Pay Act of 1970 has shown, will not give women true financial equality. It has left full-time employed women earning 17% less than men (Fawcett Society) and the pay gap for an average male and female manager at a whopping £6,076 a year (Guardian September 7 2007). That adds up over a lifetime of earning. Also what is termed "women's jobs" are still languishing at the lower end of the pay scale. What is required is for women to stand up and demand to be paid equally and properly. For the the taboo around talking money to be lifted and to start being very honest about how angry and insecure we feel about asking for a good wage or charging a good price.
Women and Money Power Circle on 16 June 2008 from 7 - 9pm at Vision Development Consultants, 2nd Floor, 63B Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG1 3FN (Blue door) Tel 0115 9418242. Cost £25.
Come with your mother, sister, girlfriends, or as yourself and join the discussion about how to raise your expectations about your financial worth. We are all worth more and support is an essential ingredient to reaching our financial worth! Barbara Stanny discovered during her research for her book "Secrets of six-figure women" that one of the key traits of six-figure income women was that they had a support team around them. Come and join this Power Circle and together we can support each other.

To book your place
Spaces are limited. Contact Rosjke Hasseldine to book your place. Telephone 0115 9814535 or mail@thesilentfemalescream.com

To secure your place send a cheque for £25 made out to Rosjke Hasseldine and mail it to Women and Money Power Circle, 4 Mulberry Close, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7SS. Please enclose your name and contact telephone number.

Client Thankyou.

Dear Brendan and Sharon
I am writing on behalf of South East Derbyshire College to thank you formally for allowing me to spend two days on work placement business interchange with yourselves, staff and students in the Education Department at Vision.
Throughout the two days, I found everyone helpful, friendly and welcoming. i was encouraged to chat with learners, ask questions of staff and generally gain an insight into the work which Vision does.
Although the atmosphere in the training Centre was calm and relaxed, the students were at all times focused, industrious and motivated. the students were obvoiously extremely well supported and cared for, but clearly understood that their aim was to progress, both academically and personally.
My main aims were to observe sessions, focusing on classroom management and dealing with challenging behaviour and also to look at the resources, the working environment, structure of the day and the use of support (in and out of sessions). I was able to gain an insight into all of these things and have been able to bring back to College some useful ideas.
I sincerely hope that we will be able to forge strong links between ourselves and Vision for the future and would welcome the opportunity to return.
Kind Regards
A.R.
Youth Engagement Manager

A.R. visited our full time educational project for permanently excluded youngsters. If you would like more information about this project; please call Brendan on 0044 0115 9418242

Design and Communications placement

DESIGN & COMMUNICATIONS PLACEMENT.

HOURS OF PLACEMENT: 8 HOURS A WEEK

JOB DESCRIPTION:


PERSONAL OBJECTIVES:

A chance for you to develop P.R. and communications skills by working in the
diverse environment of Vision.

The placement offers the chance to work alongside Vision staff in a number of areas
including media relations, producing information leaflets, publicity materials and policy issue and when needed to support Vision staff whether delivering training or support to those in the community.


BENEFITS OF THIS POST INCLUDE:

Gaining an enthusiastic and creative approach to using your skills in entrepreneurial yet community focussed organisation.

The opportunity to have in-house supervision once a week.

To increase your confidence in a working environment.

To increase your imagination and sensitivity to reach a diverse range of new
customers and to market Vision to existing customers.

Volunteers Expenses are paid at the end of every month, all receipts and invoices must show the date and time accounted for.

If you are interested in the above post or you would like to find out more please contact Vision on : 0115 941 8242 or E-mail: info@visionconsulttraining.co.uk
Or if you would like to find out more about Vision please take a look at our website www.visionconsulttraining.co.uk

Best Employer Award

Vision are proud to announce that it has won the 'East Midlands Best Employer' award at the recent 'Women for Women Awards 2007' sponsored by ETI, European Union and EMDA.
The awards were presented at the Clumber Park hotel on the 1st of December.
Sharon Roberts MD received the award on behalf of Vision and commented that ''it is reasuring to note that we (Vision) not only believe in our enthos of the people we work with being the most important asset to an Organisation; but that we are also recognised for it''.
Many thanks to Hallam Communications who we understand nominated us.

How would you like to see an 800% increase in your business's success rate?

You may not immediately relate OFSTED with running a business. Indeed unless you've been involved with an OFSTED inspection at any level you're probably not aware how tough they are to pass.

It's rather like going through a British Standard quality inspection. But BSI inspectors can't close your company down if you fail. Only require you to upgrade your paperwork and your processes.

OFSTED inspectors do have that power. To begin with they can put any organisation which trains the public into special measures and then if it doesn't come up to scratch recommend closure.

That's why steering a pupil referral unit, already in special measures, into the clear water of success is such a triumph that Vision feel justified in praising the team who achieved that result.

From the first analysis of needs through the building and training of that team, via not one but two inspections in twelve months the Vision team worked their socks off. They achieved all the short, medium and long term goals they set.

And... most important of all, achievement for the pupils in that unit had an 800% increase in their achievement rate. Because that's what it was about. To help those children make the best of their talents, however underestimated their talents might have seemed previously.

We're immensely proud of our team. They won national recognition because it was the quickest pupil referral unit to be taken out of special measures.

Why might it be of interest to your business? Well we think it shows that we can take the most difficult of situations and turn it into a success story.

How well would your business pass an OFSTED inspection?

Hot chillies and high tech: Vision down Mexico way

Brendan was an invited guest at a lunch briefing by HM Ambassador to Mexico, Giles Paxman on 20th June organised by EMITA and UKTI.

A wide ranging discussion took place about opportunities for British companies to trade in Mexico, links with Mexican companies eager to trade in the UK and issues Mexican companies have in trading with multi-national companies.

As well as considering opportunities that might exist for Vision to trade in Mexico, Brendan had the chance to discuss an issue Vision are aware of in their work with SMEs with overseas links. That of physical safety and cultural awareness in trading with overseas companies for staff; particularly managers and their families.

Vision's experience is that many companies lack the expertise that can make all the difference in their overseas trade. With a wide ranging multi-national and multi-cultural team, they are experienced in exploring and offering training in these issues.

Train your staff like your business's future success depends on it.

At an East Midlands International Trade Association presentation on 25th April 2007, Rohit Talwar CEO of Fast Future, outlined the major issues for any SME wanting to be successful in the next ten years.

Top three issues were:
Recruiting the right talent
Becoming more responsive to customers
Being innovative

The right talent is rare and training to retain it imperative to ensure SMEs can compete against higher salaries in larger companies.

Whatever your business if you're not already planning for the future, it's too late. The future's already with us.