Review of Training Web Sites

Let UK Training News guide you through the highs and lows of all those training sites on the world wide web.

Training Pages

Address: www.trainingpages.net

"Training Pages" is one of the most useful sites around. It is the UK's largest independent directory of training on the web. Visitors can easily search for the training courses they are looking for. Over 20 000 business training courses are listed, which makes Training Pages a valuable resource. A wide range of business training courses are listed, including business, IT, health and safety and industry specific training.

A clean layout and minimal advertising content means that Training Pages is fast and extremely easy to use. Courses are categorised or can be searched by keywords. One neat feature is the "hotlist", where you can collect together all the courses that interest you.

Training providers may list their courses for free. The service includes email forwarding of all enquiries and statistics to monitor the interest in particular courses.

The Training Pages site has received prestigious awards and recognition, including BBC Online, the Open Directory and Rothchild. These are well deserved and UK Training News adds its own recommendation.

CITB

Address: www.citb.org.uk

CITB is the Construction Industry body for training and qualifications. The training site is elegant, provides a host of useful training information and delivers online services.

Business training information on the site covers construction industry record schemes, careers, health and safety, training grants and the National Construction College and all its courses. Everything is clearly laid out and easy to find. A particularly useful section shows photos of all the relevant qualification cards and explains what they mean. There is also a bookshop for CITB training publications and section where employers can pay their CITB levy online.

While the site is aimed at the construction industry, it should serve as a model for other training bodies.

IT-Training.com

Address: www.it-training.com

Online IT and Business training courses form the heart of IT-Training.com. The business training courses are taken directly in your web browser and essentially consist of a series of training informative "slides", interspersed with interactive tests. It works well, balancing technical information with amusing and enlightening graphics.

Business training courses cover a wide range of subjects, including Office 2000, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, MCSE, "soft skills" and many more. Training is offered at a range of levels from beginner to expert. One of the benefits of online training is that it is taken at the trainee's own pace. Flexibility is a strong point. Corporate clients can select and brand suitable business training courses for their employees. Online training can also be combined with classroom or on site training sessions, arranged through the training web site.

With its clear style and hints of humour, IT-Training.com has exactly the right approach to make online training work. Just look out for "Sparks the Wonderdog".

Business Search PRO

Address: www.businesssearch.co.uk

Okay, this is not a training website, but it is a valuable tool for any business. Including training companies. The secret to finding new business is knowing where to look. Business Search PRO is the sales and marketing tool that puts you in complete control of growing your business.

On the site you search the Thomson Database of UK businesses on several criteria and refine the search to exactly what you are looking for. When you are happy with the results you can export the data. One downside is that the site is only available to users of Internet Explorer (it doesn't work with Netscape). Business Search PRO On-Line gives you up-to-date access to one of the most accurate and comprehensive UK business databases.

You can simply use Business Search PRO to count and buy business data online, or by becoming a Member, you can view all business data on screen for free, work your data in their telemarketing campaign manager. This tool is excellent value for money, accurate and easy to use. An invaluable online sales and business marketing tool for business companies of any size.