Attending a course is one thing, but usefully applying what you learnt can be another if the course just taught you the mechanism. And whoever's course you attend, you need to practise afterwards, and have some way you can get back and ask questions. There's a follow-up responsibility on both the course taker and the course provider.

I'm going to share with you part of a response I wrote to someone who has attended a mechanistic PHP course ....

"I understand that you've already attended a course that included some PHP, though not one of ours; if you're needing further help on what you learnt, can suggest that you might also be provided with an element of ongoing help from the trainer or organiser of that course - that's certainly a service we provide here at Well House Consultants for our delegates, and chances are that your tutor knows you and your application a bit already.

Programming is an art as well as a science, and you do need to practise and get into the flow of things as well as having taken the course. I take great care when I teach to ensure that I cover not only the mechanism of specific examples but also the techniques for adapting and applying those techniques. There's something of a parallel to a creative writing course, where copying the tutor's work really won't do much for you."

Yes, I do find it slightly ironic that I'm being asked to provide help by someone who's just bought (a course) from a competitor but, what the heck, this business is all about networking and I know how hard it is to choose the right course - after all, if you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn't need a course, would you?
(written 2006-02-16 04:40:54)

 G305 - Well House Consultants - Post Course support
  [2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
  [1874] Is it worth it? - (2008-11-07)
  [1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
  [651] Please Register with Opentalk - but just once! - (2006-03-19)
  [569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)
  [516] Open source questions? Anyone can ask. - (2005-12-03)
  [509] Snippets from Geekmas - (2005-11-28)
  [389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
  [336] Targetted Advertising - (2005-06-05)
  [327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)
  [293] Course follow-ups - (2005-04-27)
  [248] Use me, but use me effectively - (2005-03-16)
  [244] Getting your examples, my examples and the data files after your course - (2005-03-13)
  [199] Post course support - part of the service - (2005-02-02)
  [136] Please tell us - (2004-12-01)

G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service
  [2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
  [2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
  [2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
  [2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
  [2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
  [2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
  [2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
  [1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
  [1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
  [1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
  [1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
  [1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
  [1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
  [1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
  [1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
  [1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
  [1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
  [966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
  [961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
  [944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
  [852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
  [841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
  [725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
  [717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
  [650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
  [628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
  [621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
  [566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
  [552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)
  [482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
  [440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
  [393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
  [350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
  [265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
  [233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
  [195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
  [189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
  [150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
  [126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)
  [91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)
  [72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)

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Greetings from Dublin
Coming or going?
Look out for the motor cyclist
Need a hankie
Been on a course, but still not got it?
Don't expose your regular expressions
On being British
Train service from December
Design your day with a walk
Perl - multiprocess applications