With less than a month to go until the introduction of the right for employees to request time off to undertake for study or training, time is running out to get your procedure in place and to communicate it to your workforce.

E-Learning 1.0 was all about delivering  content, primarily in the form of online courses, produced by experts - teachers or subject matter experts.  E-Learning 2.0  or Social Learning is all about individuals (co-)creating content in a variety of formats and sharing information and knowledge using tools like blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and social networks both within an educational or training context to support a new  collaborative approach to learning as well as to support their own personal and group learning and working activities.

IRS research into line manager responsibilities suggests that although line managers take lead or shared responsibility for people management in 90% of organisations, their training in areas such as absence management, appraisals and recruitment is often inadequate

Take part in our poll and it will link you to the latest IRS survey which will investigate the latest trends in the development of people management skills and identifying best practice in this area.

At a seminar organised by the Guardian newspaper and the Further Education Reputation Strategy Group, key players in the further education (FE) and skills sector have been looking at how they can improve their interaction with employers and employees and deliver the right kind of training in a changing jobs market.

One challenge for the sector, according to one anonymous participant, is to convince employers of the value of training, while also balancing the needs of employers with those of employees.

Some of the ideas to come forward in the debate include:

• working with unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation, to raise awareness of the benefits of training;
• having more employer forums that help ensure employers' needs are met;
• being flexible - such as holding training sessions in the early hours for post office workers, or providing a bus kitted out specially to train bus drivers;
• keeping it simple - making sure the college deals with the funding paperwork and the hassle, not the employer; and
• having more collaboration and 'knowledge exchange activities' between colleges.

Information for employers on vocational qualifications has been added to the Business Link website. The information explains the changes that are taking place to vocational qualifications and is aimed at helping employers understand which qualifications are most suitable for their employees.

Employees have a statutory right to take time off work for a myriad of reasons ranging from parental leave to dealing with care arrangements. One survey found that 34% of employees needed to take time off for an emergency involving a dependant. There’s even a new right for employees to request time off for training, due to come into force in April this year.

The Government has today published guidance  for employers (on the Business Link website) giving details of the new right for employees to request time off for training. Employees can now learn how to make their request on the DirectGov website.

If the new legislation takes off, employees could soon be taking more responsibility for their own training, and employers that have not already done so, could be forced to think more about employee development needs and methods of delivering training.

This is an opportune time for HR and training specialists to participate in the IRS research on training and its evaluation . Participants get a free copy of the report of the findings, which will contain:

• Examples of successful training evaluation techniques;
• Data revealing which measurement tools work best;
• An overview of what organisations can achieve through effective monitoring; and
• Practitioner views on how successful training evaluation can impact the organisation.

 Take a look at the short, confidential survey questionnaire by clicking here.

The BBC has launched a new academy, which will provide training for its competitors and the public, according to People Management. Masterclasses from journalists such as Robert Peston and John Simpson will be available via the BBC College of Journalism website. Mark Byford, deputy director of the BBC, says that they hope to improve the standards of journalism and want to help the wider UK media industry through difficult times.

The idea of extending internal training to outsiders is ambitious, but not entirely new. Law firm Allen & Overy, for instance, has set up a legal university for its financial sector clients (subscription required), who were clamouring to attend its in-house training courses due to their reputation in the sector. The firm says the arrangement has helped it build important relationships and set the foundations for future business. It doesn't charge for its client university courses, but has raised several thousand pounds for charity by asking delegates to donate.

Devon and Cornwall Police has taken the unusual step of recruiting three Springer Spaniels as rescue dogs for a job that has traditionally been done by German Shepherds, reports the Daily Telegraph website.

• Strategist:  know where you are doing and have a position about the future
• Executor: make sure you make things happen and deliver as promised
• Talent manager: involve others in your journey
• Human capital developer: invest in the next generation
• Personal proficiency: take care of yourself so others will trust you

Employee development remained a high priority among most UK employers at the beginning of 2009, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (on the CIPD website), which also found that the upgrading of leadership and line manager skills is a primary focus for four in five organisations.

XpertHR is conducting a learning and development survey among UK employers and would like to hear about the latest priorities and spending trends at your organisation. For instance, is people development considered an important tool to ensure the organisation's continued success, or has the training budget been unceremoniously slashed during the economic downturn? What are your organisation's main development goals?

By participating in the 2009 IRS learning and development survey, you will receive a free copy of the report of our findings. To participate click here.

Acas and CIPD have produced the "five-a-day" fundamentals of good people management, aiming to highlight the importance of people management skills in helping to raise productivity. The five management fundamentals, with practical tips on "how to be a better boss", are grouped under five headings:

As we all know, unemployment is rising fast. In an attempt to encourage employers to keep recruiting, the Government is to award firms that recruit people who have been unemployed for more than six months “golden hellos” of up to £2,500 (external website).

It seems that the chances for ordinary British folk in the sporting arena are on the up. Since last weekend, we now have our very own British Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton, and - paving the way for even more greatness in the future - the John Lewis Partnership (no relation) has announced that it is offering support for its staff if they wish to compete in the national sporting arena, or become sports coaches.

The government, TUC, CBI, and two umbrella organisations for the voluntary sector have signed an agreement (PDF format, 238KB) that aims to increase access to skills, trade unions and advice, for employees working under government contracts.

An interesting post from Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace discusses how to prompt behavioural change in "exceedingly intelligent" employees who are vital to an organisation's success but who are "stunted" in some way, lacking key social or leadership skills.

Parents of children up to age 16 are to be given the right to request flexible working from their employer, potentially affecting 4.5 million employees. And under a separate, Education and Skills Bill, all employees will be given the right to request time to train.

Our recent survey (subscription required) looking at line managers’ role in people management shows that employee engagement is a growing part of a line manager’s function.

But, as our survey also shows, one in five HR practitioners responding felt that this was a role that line managers struggle to perform well.

I attended a seminar recently, given by international employee opinion survey ORC (external link), exploring this very topic. Kate Pritchard, ORC director of employee research, discussed practical steps organisations can take to keep engagement levels high among employees. This should help employees to remain committed to the organisation, and be prepared to “go that extra mile” – as outlined by ORC's model of engagement: ‘Say, stay, and strive’.

One thing was clear from the seminar: achieving and sustaining an engaged workforce requires effort, and conducting an employee opinion survey can be no more than a starting point.

It is not really surprising that over half the organisations in the latest CIPD learning and development survey admit to being unmoved by the government’s “post-Leitch skills agenda”. The government has focused its efforts on the development of the most basic skills in the workplace, whereas most employers (87% in the CIPD survey) are of the opinion (surprise, surprise) that they should not be the ones responsible for educating young people up to a decent standard of literacy and numeracy.

Throughout March, issues on which XpertHR subscribers were looking for answers included the use of words such as "senior" and "junior" in job titles, recouping training costs where an employee subsequently leaves the organisation, and the difference between wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.

The shambles of Heathrow Terminal 5’s first few days will doubtless crop up in every change management training programme for years to come.

By all accounts, staff were expected to move into the massive new building with little real idea how to find their way round, let alone how to operate the complex and sophisticated new equipment within it.

So it's farewell to the Learning and Skills Council, which got the news today that it had apparently been dreading for some time: it's going to be abolished.

Employers across Europe are missing out on potential talent because line managers fail to engage poorer performing employees, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt.

The research, which covers 175 companies and 5,500 employees, finds that managers are far too preoccupied with top performers and fail to communicate effectively with those that show less promise. As a result, those that need to have their skills or motivation boosted are left high and dry.

I like a good country walk and was therefore intrigued to see that the Campaign for Learning recommends this outdoor activity – during the lunch break – as a “quick win” learning opportunity for the 2008 National Learning at Work Day.

It’s certainly a cheap option for employers and would help train staff to … well, to get out of the office..

There can also be a competitive aspect to this activity. If the training department’s budget can stretch to include the cost of pedometers, businesses can “challenge colleagues to walk the most steps in a day”.

Teambuilding events have come a long way since the era when they basically involved compulsory paintballing or spending the day up to your waist in cold water attempting for no adequately explained reason to cross a river without the aid of a bridge.

Are you keen to learn how other employers are tackling the issue of workplace training?

Talent management is a hot issue for HR practitioners as new business models, changing labour market demographics and international competition make the task of recruiting, developing and retaining key employees all the more difficult.

Does vocational training dampen the ambitions of schoolchildren? According to a representative from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) it does.

We've all come across the skills gap. But research published today suggests there may also be something of a talent shortage as well.

The survey of more than 600 employers by Capital Consulting and Cranfield School of Management found that just over half thought the word "talent" could be applied to their whole workforce, and that some rather alarmingly thought that no-one in their organisation qualified.

Looks like all those stories we hear from Unison, about local government employees being increasingly fed up with the way they are treated at work, may be true.

During a telephone interview for a case study, soon to be published in Employment Review, an innovating Training and Recruitment manager told me that one of the pilot courses he and his team were asked to run last year was on anger management. 'I was a bit dubious when I got the request' he told me, 'but within two hours of advertising it on the Council's intranet we had 30 people sign up.'

So the next time you decide to wag your finger disapprovingly in the face of a local official, just think twice.