Pre-Easter News Snippets

Extra! Extra! There is always an awful lot happening in the world of Maven Training and ever since we launched this blog we haven’t been short of news and articles to share with you. I suppose that’s what we get for being such a dynamic, innovative organisation!

So, dear readers, here are three important pieces of information we would like to talk about before you all (and us as well!) disappear on the – hopefully sunny and relaxing – Easter holidays.

PRINCE2:2009 – Official launch date announced

Best Management Practice – consisting of the OGC (Office of Government Commerce), the official accreditors APMG and official publishers TSO – have announced the 16th June 2009 as the official launch of PRINCE2:2009. More information can be found within Lead Author Andy Murray's official PRINCE2:2009 blog .

PRINCE2 for Girls – it was HOT!
By Nick Tipping, Marketing Executive at Maven Training – and not a girl, despite the hours of intensive hair care.

We ran our first ever PRINCE2 for Girls course last week from the 30th March – 3rd April and it was an astounding success!

Working in Marketing at Maven Training I went to our Training Centre myself at the end of the course to chat to some of the delegates and we received some very positive feedback. Appreciating the fact that the girls had been on a very intense long week of training and had undertaken two examinations, we decided to create a post-event “wind down” session, which consisted of massages, music and little nibbles laid out for them to indulge into. On top of this they had a chance to chat and ask questions about anything they wanted – from Maven Training’s services to the meaning of life! The brilliant Narinder (Girl Trainer Extraordinaire and contributor to this very blog), who trained the course, was there to network – and we even had a special guest appearance from Elizabeth Harrin from pm4girls, whom a couple of delegates knew about and whose blog they were regular readers!

It was a great chance to learn a lot more about the delegates’ experiences and hear their thoughts on the PRINCE2 for Girls concept. The overall view was that it gave some of the more timid members of the group the power and confidence to interact more freely with their other colleagues. The ‘girls only’ learning zone created a nurturing and inspirational experience and made some delegates more relaxed. What I also found interesting was learning what people’s expectations were – not just for a PRINCE2 course but for a ‘Maven Training PRINCE2 course’. After speaking to some of our delegates who had taken courses with our competitors previously, it was great to see they held us in such high esteem and would recommend our company to their friends and colleagues.

A few hours – and glasses of wine – later, people were starting to drift away to make their journey home but it was great to see them smiling, in a great mood and ready to go home for the weekend. If anyone is interested in the next course, this will be taking place on the 22nd June with more massages, more wine and more relaxation post-course!

Maven Training joins the BCS Debates

A week from now, on the 15th April, our CEO Melanie Franklin will be a panellist on the next BCS Debate, “Making IT Projects Work”.

The BCS Debates are part of the BCS website. They run every three months (it has been running for around a year now) and are based on topics involved with the IT Sector.

BCS is the UK’s leading industry body for IT professionals and the awarding body for Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status. Established in 1957, they now have over 65,000 members in more than 100 countries. They send out weekly newsletter to people in project management, women in IT, young professionals, Security, students.

We have also worked very closely with IT Training, a sub-branch of BCS in the form of a magazine and e-newsletters. IT Training have even chosen us as one of the Top 50 IT Training organisations for two years in a row (2008 and 2009), and Melanie has conducted two interviews with IT Training Editor Helen Wilcox – one in 2008 and the last one finished last week.

In the debates they have carried out so far they have had CapGemini, QA, Totaljobsgroup, University of East London, Cisco, Kyocera Mita, Computer Aid, Memset, IBM, 7safe, Trend Micro, TSO, eLearning Network 2e2, Matrix42, Brightwave, Towards Maturity.

Watch this space for further news!