In September 2020 Paul Lane, our Health and Safety Rep at Wincanton Magor, completed his Introduction to Excel training organised by URTU Learning in partnership with NILC Training.
Paul found out about the training through his URTU Learning Project Worker and decided to enrol after speaking to one of his colleagues who was enthused by the way the training was delivered and encouraged Paul to come forward.
Paul said, “I thought about doing the training in the past, but I never got round to doing it. It was partly the desire to learn and partly the positive feedback about the course from another learner that pushed me onwards”. He went onto say “I tried learning Excel in the past, but I have never had any formal computer training until now”.
The training was facilitated by URTU Learning, delivered on site and the employer provided a training room for the course. Karim Dastgir who is the Director at NILC Training said; “from the moment our trainer Richard met Paul at the beginning of his training session, he could see Paul was eager to gain new Excel knowledge in order to support him in his working and personal life”.
Paul said, “It was a face to face, one to one session with the Richard so all efforts were concentrated on me and this training was more personal to the learner as a result. There was an ongoing assessment and I did not feel overloaded at any point”.
He continued, “The training explained many things I did not understand about Excel. Many times I have seen others doing things using spreadsheets, but I could never understand how they got different boxes to add up, worked out percentages, etc. It fascinated me how Excel got the answers as I like to know how things work. I found it very interesting”.
Paul said, “Richard, the tutor, worked at my pace, which made the training relevant to me and tailored to my needs. I will now be able to perform in my health and safety rep role much better and provide information to others in a more structured way. Computers were not easily available when I was at school and there were no formal computing classes, either. Nowadays our smartphones are like portable computers”.
He concluded by saying, “I believe that anything that improves your life is worthwhile and if a tutor makes it enjoyable, that’s a bonus! I have thoroughly enjoyed the course and I cannot wait to move onto the next level. There are still many things that I would like to learn when it comes to working without the traditional pen and paper and I intend on doing another course, perhaps in Word, when an opportunity arises”.
Karim Dastgir added; “Since the session Paul now wants to further develop Excel skills with some more of his colleagues, through additional fully-customised training sessions to aid their development and use of Excel.”