Training is offered at ETC's offices in west London; at ETC dealer Lightco's offices in Utrecht, The Netherlands; and, from later this year, at Onetwosales's offices in Stockholm, Sweden.
ETC's Marketing Events coordinator Sophie Pierronnet says, "When we started offering training in our offices in Acton a few years back, it was on an ad hoc basis for end users who had just purchased a desk. Then some ETC staff decided to get together to see how to make this more attractive to a wider audience, with a formal curriculum and printed training materials. This soon grew into regular sessions, with two or three per console type each month.
"We have a great team of freelance trainers who help us build and improve the training, using examples from their real world experience. The fact that the training is free often surprises attendees - proving that there really is such thing as a free lunch!
"We get great feedback on the way the trainers relay information and the fact that we keep the number of attendees to a small group - there are never more than eight in a session, with two people per console."
The training has been translated into several languages, with dealers across Europe offering training to the increasing number of ETC desk users in their area. Sales manager for Lightco Bas van Schelven comments, "We offered training to users in the past, but feedback revealed that, even though English is widely spoken, participants were having trouble keeping up. The sessions at our offices are now taught in Dutch, which means that people can focus on the training rather than getting stuck and either not understanding or having to keep interrupting to ask for clarification.
"We were keen to offer regular sessions rather than ad-hoc as we wanted to provide a service to potential and existing customers without the need for special arrangements to be made. The more support we can provide to them, the better the opportunity we have to make sure they are getting the best possible use of their equipment."
For details of dates and locations, and to book in London or Utrecht, see etcconnect.com/support.education.aspx.
(Jim Evans)
