If I run a course for you, a big part of the cost is my time and travel; the incremental cost of each trainee added is relatively small. This means that a course of 12 persons is lower cost that two courses for six each. Thus the question gets asked "how many trainees can you realistically take on a course". There's no single figure answer to this ...

For PUBLIC courses, where each individual may come from a different background and have different detailed goals (e.g. sure they all want to learn Perl, but Boris is going to use it to maintain system admin scripts and Doris to write new web applications), we limit bookings to just SEVEN trainees. That gives the tutor plenty of time to spend with everyone during practicals and helps to ensure that each person leaves having covered the bases that they need.

On a PRIVATE course where the trainees all work for the same organisation, the warning flags start showing when the client wants to exceed TEN trainees. If each of the ten has a different role and background within the organisation, and has different requirements of the subject being taught, then each additional trainee beyond the ten leads to a dilution of focus, and potentially to trainees having to wait for the tutor to assist with their issues during practicals.

On a PRIVATE course where the background and roles of the trainees is similar, I've happily taught a group of SIXTEEN trainees, and we were able to provide one computer per trainee for the course ... it all went very well. Note that the particular group that I describe knew each other, interacted between themselves excellently, and made my life easy. It would have been a different story had the organisation been factional and / or playing company politics.

There are occasions when I address a larger audience - but that's not a class or course, rather it's a series of lectures or talks. Such occasions do not include the provision of equipment and guided practicals. Without the change of pace that's natural during the lecture and practical sections of a regular course, both audience and lecturer would find it hard to concentrate beyond five hours of sessions on a single day.
(written 2005-01-18, updated 2006-06-05)

 G200 - Well House Consultants - Course and Company information
  [3235] How we make our programming courses both time and cost effective - (2011-04-09)
  [3202] Telling you something about us in just one line - (2011-03-15)
  [3115] Perl, Python, PHP, Lua, Linux, and more - and business hotel too. Menu for 2011 - (2010-12-31)
  [3112] Public and private courses - subjects available for 2011 - (2010-12-29)
  [2935] 01225 707126 to 01225 344596 to 01225 899360 - Well House Fax - (2010-08-26)
  [2925] Well House - the pictures - (2010-08-16)
  [2838] Respecting our customers anonimity - (2010-06-29)
  [2777] Blowing our own trumpet - (2010-05-23)
  [2762] Well House - Mission and Policy summaries - (2010-05-13)
  [2661] Current Public Courses - (2010-03-05)
  [2659] New numbers, as 01225 707126 and 01225 709638 are being retired - (2010-03-04)
  [2637] Courses - Melksham and elsewhere - until the end of April - (2010-02-16)
  [2560] Training comparison to QA Training, Learning Tree, GB Direct. - (2010-01-02)
  [2558] Happy new decade - and course and hotel prices for 2010 - (2010-01-01)
  [2505] I almost put the bins out this morning - (2009-11-16)
  [2400] Are you wanting to learn PHP? - (2009-09-08)
  [2354] Training, Open Source computer languages - (2009-08-13)
  [2350] Ten years in Melksham - looking forward to ten more. - (2009-08-11)
  [2341] Koulutus, Open Source tietokone kielillä - (2009-08-09)
  [2340] ldning, Open Source dator språk - (2009-08-09)
  [2339] Opplæring, Open Source datamaskinen språk - (2009-08-09)
  [2338] Uddannelse, Open Source computer sprog - (2009-08-09)
  [2337] Opleiding, Open Source computertalen - (2009-08-09)
  [2336] Formação, Open Source computador línguas - (2009-08-09)
  [2335] Ausbildung, die Open-Source-Sprachen - (2009-08-09)
  [2334] Formazione, Open Source computer lingue - (2009-08-09)
  [2333] Formación, de los lenguajes de código abierto - (2009-08-09)
  [2332] Formation, des langages Open Source - (2009-08-09)
  [2326] Learn a new programming language this summer. - (2009-08-06)
  [2278] First courses for 2010 - (2009-07-10)
  [2227] Learning PHP, Ruby, Lua and Python - upcoming courses - (2009-06-11)
  [2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
  [2118] Spring Sprung - (2009-04-05)
  [2041] httpd, Tomcat and PHP course enhancements - (2009-02-14)
  [1629] A short introduction to our courses - (2008-05-03)
  [1623] PHP Techniques - a workshop - (2008-04-26)
  [1577] Spring and early summer training courses - (2008-03-15)
  [1565] Languages compared - based on developer community size - (2008-03-05)
  [1492] Well House Consultants Training and Hotel - 2008 news - (2008-01-01)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1384] An email update for past guests and delegates - (2007-10-08)
  [1317] 2008 course schedule - Perl, Python, PHP, Linux, Java Deployment, Ruby and more - (2007-08-23)
  [1102] A Reference - (2007-03-08)
  [1087] Telling a story in different ways - (2007-02-20)
  [1018] Open Source Courses and Business Hotel - products and prices for 2007 - (2007-01-01)
  [564] Open Source training from Well House Consultants - (2006-01-14)
  [550] 2006 - Making business a pleasure - (2006-01-01)
  [549] 2005 - Come as a student, leave as a friend - (2005-12-31)
  [504] We are about Open Source programming courses in the UK - (2005-11-24)
  [419] Most popular courses - (2005-08-19)
  [277] Fire drill - (2005-04-12)
  [234] How to get the best from your supplier - (2005-03-03)
  [13] Mobile Office revamp - (2004-08-13)

G300 - Well House Consultants - Public Courses
  [3573] New in Java 7 - and why we are not running public Java 7 courses - (2012-01-08)
  [3559] Well House Consultants - Open Source Programming Courses for 2012 - (2011-12-21)
  [3528] December courses - PHP, Python, Perl - and a weekend Lua course - (2011-11-24)
  [3401] Open Source Training Schedule - learn a programming language - in Autumn 2011 or 2012 - (2011-08-20)
  [3365] Turning bright delegates into bright and knowledgable ones - (2011-07-21)
  [3358] Upcoming Programming courses ... High Summer, 2011 - (2011-07-15)
  [3219] How do I become a Linux System Administrator? - (2011-03-28)
  [3205] Open Source (Public) courses - PHP, Tcl, SQL, Python, C and C++ in Melksham, Wiltshire, UK - (2011-03-18)
  [3160] Extra courses - Advanced PHP, MySQL and Lua - (2011-02-07)
  [3129] Extra courses - C and C++ - (2011-01-12)
  [3078] Royal Wedding. How William and Catherine have changed our schedule - (2010-12-02)
  [3074] Running a course ... what if the tutor isn't well? - (2010-11-29)
  [3071] Well House Price list, January to March 2011 - (2010-11-25)
  [3021] Courses for late 2010 and early 2011 - (2010-10-30)
  [2965] Testimonials - Well House Consultants Open Source courses - (2010-09-21)
  [2942] Open Source Programming - Training Course Schedule - (2010-08-31)
  [2928] Public (scheduled) or private course? Book direct, or through a third party? - (2010-08-19)
  [2927] Announcing 2011 Open Source Training courses - dates and prices - (2010-08-18)
  [2881] Tailoring of courses to meet customers needs - how it works - (2010-07-21)
  [2839] Software versions used - June 2010 - (2010-06-30)
  [2736] Perl Course FAQ - (2010-04-23)
  [2048] Learning to program in PHP, Python, Java or Lua ... - (2009-02-19)
  [1968] Review of 2008 - (2008-12-31)
  [1929] 2009 - Hotel, Meeting, Training Course prices - (2008-12-07)
  [1857] November and December Public Course Schedule - (2008-10-27)
  [1836] Next in the sequence - courses next year (2009) - (2008-10-12)
  [1751] Public Training Course Dates until July 2009 - (2008-08-13)
  [1693] July to December 2008 - Open Source training schedule - (2008-07-01)
  [1615] PHP training courses every month - (2008-04-18)
  [1420] The Learning Perl crew, October 2007 - (2007-11-03)
  [1414] What we teach - expained for the non-technical - (2007-10-28)
  [1035] Longer hours and better value courses - (2007-01-15)
  [933] Course Joining package - updated - (2006-11-20)
  [845] Course scheduling and Geekmas - are they traditions yet? - (2006-08-26)
  [646] PHP - London course, Melksham Course, Evening course - (2006-03-14)
  [387] Training course plans for 2006 - (2005-07-23)
  [172] Public courses in London - (2005-01-07)

G400 - Well House Consultants - Private course
  [2953] Turning an exercise into the real thing with extreme programming - (2010-09-11)
  [2802] After the Perl course in Nurnberg - (2010-06-11)
  [1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)
  [1092] Tcl training - often for a larger group - (2007-02-24)
  [994] Training on Cascading Style Sheets - (2006-12-17)
  [321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)

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