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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Getting the right level of trainer

There are tiers of trainers, and if you're choosing a technical trainer for yourself or your staff, you need someone from the right tier.

In the upper tier, you have Experts with a "Capital E". They really know their subject inside out, and they can present courses to highly technical audiences really well; I'm amongst these people this week, and it's enthralling to hear Randal Schwartz go through modperl in 45 minutes, or Brian Aker talking through MySQL server replication, clustering and cluster tables (different subjects) in a similar time.

The middle tier have a much broader subject subject knowledge, without being quite such experts on individual topics. I, unashamedly, put myself in this group and not "upper tier"; I don't need to be a hyperexpert when I'm called upon to teach Perl to a newcomer to programming, and I mustn't be a "one language only" guru when I'm helping people convert; it's just too narrow, and if you speak to the authors of the languages you'll hear them say "I made this C like" or "we picked up this from Ruby". Yes, and many trainees will be converting and will benefit from a broad teacher.

The lower tier, if you can call it that, includes trainers on other subjects who get some exposure to the target subject, and who will spend an hour or two on Perl / Tcl / PHP / MySQL as part of application training or management overviews. Such people often come on our courses, and I'm delighted to give them tips and techniques. I don't regard them as competition as they have a distinctly different job to do and, with a few bad exceptions, won't claim to offer a full course on the subject in question.

Let me repeat - I'm proud to be in the second tier, and it's a business decision that I'm there. I'm very very happy to take groups of nervous newcomers to [enter language] and take them through from basics to writing good professional code, introducing the philosophy as well as the mechanisms of the language, teaching good technique and comparing, with some authority, to other languages as we go. This is the training that most people want, and it's proven time and again by the number of requests we get train further groups for the same company, or the number of people who recommend us on to their friends and contacts. Our marketing indicates that the vast majority of our customers are referrals in this way and that's a huge vote of confidence by our customers.

Why am I writing this article this morning? Because I was shocked over dinner last night, seated with some of the upper tier people who had better remain nameless, to hear them talking about flying lecturers from the upper tier halfway around the world to present more fundamental courses. Bemoaning the lack of ability to charge what they felt the right rate should be, not realising that they can't charge the right rate because they're selling the wrong product - they're selling a Rolls Royce when the customer wants a Ford. Very nice indeed, but too expensive and too high maintenance. The real tragedy? They hadn't even looked at the Ford to see whether it did a good job - they had simply heard of it, and discounted it straight out with disdain. "Can't be any good" attitude.

I remember the particular contract they were using as an example. I was the Ford.

I don't mind competition, but I did "feel" the disrespect last night. This morning, it's mellowed. I'm thankful that they're not really able to provide the majority training needs. Occasionally one will "slip through the net" and a Guru will fly halfway around the world to present over the heads of his audience (yes, I HAVE seen this; I hope I'm not making the same mistake in reverse) but for the most part the customer will realise that he needs a course with plenty of hands on, a group which is small enough to give people some one-on-one time, and a trainer who'll be available for follow ups, and with associated subject knowledge to help put the whole in context. That's what I'm proud to provide.

(written 2004-10-14, updated 2008-05-11)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice
  [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)
  [27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
  [68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
  [77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
  [95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
  [108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
  [121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
  [125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
  [129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
  [137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
  [157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
  [180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
  [188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
  [200] Tips for the top - (2005-02-03)
  [211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
  [217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
  [226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
  [297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
  [321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)
  [399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
  [438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
  [457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
  [467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
  [487] On line course booking - credit card protection - (2005-11-06)
  [491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
  [536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
  [664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
  [766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
  [808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
  [883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
  [906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
  [1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
  [1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
  [1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
  [1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
  [1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
  [1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
  [1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
  [1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
  [1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
  [1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
  [1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
  [1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
  [1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
  [2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
  [2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
  [2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
  [2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
  [2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
  [2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
  [2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
  [2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
  [2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
  [2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
  [2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
  [2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
  [2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
  [2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
  [3613] Keeping Business Local. But is that realistic? - (2012-02-13)
  [3665] Will will smile? - (2012-03-22)
  [3750] Matching opening hours to when customers can come in and buy - (2012-06-04)
  [3755] Cruising on the Mersey Ferry? - (2012-06-07)
  [4107] Snog, Marry, Avoid - (2013-05-31)
  [4293] Certification - (2014-09-15)
  [4415] Buffet review - taking the price into account - (2015-02-05)
  [4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)

G207 - Well House Consultants - Staff
  [10] What do you look for in your IT trainer? - (2004-08-10)
  [41] A Thousand and four words - (2004-09-07)
  [168] Welcoming Leah Davies to our team - (2005-01-04)
  [185] Who am I? - (2005-01-21)
  [371] The training team that's looking out for you - (2005-07-07)
  [393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
  [578] Woman screaming at me - (2006-01-26)
  [862] 4 weeks to go - (2006-09-11)
  [895] Welcome, Martin - (2006-10-16)
  [972] Both one team and two - (2006-12-08)
  [1002] Meet the neighbours - (2006-12-20)
  [1065] Graham Ellis - an Introduction - (2007-02-05)
  [1083] Behind the scenes - (2007-02-17)
  [1141] A strong team broadens the professional coverage - (2007-04-10)
  [1324] Well House Manor appoints a General Manager - (2007-08-28)
  [2009] The Royal Mail Receipt - (2009-01-26)
  [2050] Why the Pony Tail? - (2009-02-21)
  [2164] Updating my public profile - Graham Ellis - (2009-05-09)
  [2566] Excellent staff make for excellent hotel - (2010-01-07)
  [2772] Graham Ellis - Summary of Training Record - (2010-05-21)
  [2775] Declarations of interest - knowing where you stand with people - (2010-05-22)
  [2934] Not so much software training - more hotel keeping! - (2010-08-25)
  [2960] The Well House team - September 2010 - (2010-09-19)
  [3051] Positively reforming the system - could it be done? - (2010-11-14)
  [3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
  [3201] A change to the Well House team - thank you and good luck, Chris - (2011-03-14)
  [3212] Well House Manor - a home from home for the business and leisure guest in Melksham - (2011-03-26)
  [3311] Exhilarating day! - (2011-05-30)
  [3425] Our National Autograss Champion, from Melksham - (2011-09-08)
  [3460] Flying Colours! - (2011-09-28)
  [3490] How not to call when job seeking ... - (2011-10-20)
  [3586] Emergency First Aid Provision at Well House Manor - part of the service - (2012-01-19)
  [3961] Well House Staff Party - (2012-12-22)
  [4189] Who are we - Lisa, Graham, Gypsy and Billy - (2013-10-07)
  [4227] Happy Christmas from the Well House Manor team - (2013-12-25)


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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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