The Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently announced plans to fast track teacher training. In particular, when people decide to change from other career paths to teaching, they are being encouraged to retrain in just six months. However, 80 per cent of teachers in a recent survey said that they thought the government’s plans would “damage children’s education”.

Now, of course, teachers would be expected to say that. After all, nobody likes people to think that it is easy to do their job. The scheme has been particularly aimed at outstanding applicants, especially those in the financial sector who have lost their jobs as a result of the recession.

However, the teacher’s objections are rather better founded than that. They are concerned that commercial skills will not necessarily transfer to the classroom. They did not feel that the new teachers would be familiar with the curriculum and that their teaching would be less effective.

In short, they are concerned that the teachers would need far more soft skills training. Specifically, they would need a far greater facility with communication skills. After all, these new recruits will need to deal effectively with young people.

On a more positive note, the existing teachers acknowledged that the scheme may help bridge the skill shortage in maths and science.

Your own experience will confirm to you what many software vendors and developers accept as a fact. That is, that 90 per cent of all the features in software go unused. Most people seem to be allergic to using the manual or help menu. They are quite happy to use the bits they need but avoid anything that is going to require further reading. They would just like to get on with their jobs. This can be frustrating even with the most popular software such as Excel, as there are many relatively simple features which can transform the way you work and save hours. The question is, how do you get more from your software?

The first thing to do is make sure you use existing free software to maximum benefit. For example, in terms of customer care, you can set up instant messaging so clients can contact your members of staff easily.

Make sure you get the most out of the people who are selling you the software. Make them work for their money! Maybe even make them a regular contributor to your management training courses. See what courses they are prepared to offer your staff. This will be particularly useful when you are buying direct from the software designers.

There are all sorts of ideas for ensuring your personal development proceeds unhindered. Some would consider that whilst suggestions about how you do your job are fair comment, starting to dictate who your friends should be may be carrying things a little too far.

However, your friends, colleagues and associates do have a huge influence on your approach to life, as well as on specific thoughts and decisions you may have. Think about it. However well defined your goals and ideas for the future are; talking to cynical, world weary individuals who have a negative outlook on life will reduce your drive and enthusiasm.

Actually choosing your new friends can be helpful. Look for positive people who appear to be the sort of person you would like to be. Learn from them just as you would from a business mentor.

Try and find out if there are support groups of likeminded people. Weight watching groups are taken for granted and their advantages self-evident. Find other people who have similar aims to yourself and network with them regularly.

Take time out and think about your goals and what you are doing to achieve those goals. Don’t just rush around like a headless chicken.

Training is one of the first areas to feel the financial squeeze when times are hard. Companies in many different sectors will have different priorities as they try to focus on what they deem to be the essential training which must be done. Whether it is charities ensuring staff involved in frontline care have the necessary nursing qualifications, or financial businesses making sure they comply with the technical training required by the Financial Services Agency, the result seems to be the same. Soft skills training is treated as a luxury and either delayed until the next financial year or quietly dropped. This is a false economy.

One of the problems with soft skills training is that it can be very difficult to measure its effectiveness. Indeed, many people are unclear as to what is meant by soft skills. It includes, but is not restricted to communication skills, team building, assertiveness, motivation, and presentation.

An employee can have the most amazing and complete technical skills, but without the necessary soft skills they will be unable to demonstrate their prowess.

For example, effective communication is essential whether it is with individuals or groups and whether those people are internal or external to the business.

There are individuals who are more than happy to stand up in front of hundreds of people and talk on any subject at the drop of a hat. It has to be said, however, that these people are the exception rather than the rule. In fact many studies show the greatest fear many people have is public speaking.

Normally, when you make a presentation, you have plenty of time to prepare. You should make the most of that time. Not only do you need to make the obvious preparation such as ensuring you know the content of the presentation inside out. You also need to ensure that it is going to keep people listening and ideally, entertained. It can also help with your personal development in the long term.

There are of course many subjects which have to be covered, which even Eddie Izzard would have difficulty making entertaining. However, if that is the case, is a presentation really necessary? Frankly if the presentation is going to be dull, it might be just as effective sending an email.

Rehearsing your presentation is always good and, if you can, have an audience. Get their honest feedback. Don’t use presentation aides such as PowerPoint for the sake of it. Think seriously about whether they add anything to the presentation.

There is a huge self-help industry. It seems that books which will give you the secrets of success come out at an increasingly fast rate. The fact is everybody would like to be better. What is meant by ‘better’ varies from person to person. Some people turn to religion. Some turn to the personal development section of their local bookshop.

The books all compete with each other. They each attempt to promise more and more with the minimum of effort. The amount of effort is a key point as many of the people buying into these theories are lazy. Yes, they want it all, but they don’t want to work for it. Look at some of the most successful businessmen around such as Alan Sugar or Bill Gates and you will quickly realise that they got where they are by hard work, a phenomenal mind, or maybe a combination of both.

Of course, luck can be involved, but the chances of the sort of luck that will lead an individual to the top of the business tree are equivalent to winning the lottery.

In short, for true personal development, there is no substitute for hard work and ensuring clear targets. What are you trying to achieve? How can you do that? It really isn’t rocket science and you might find something other than those books to spend your money on!

Training should always be effective and relevant. It is therefore vital to carry out a training needs analysis (TNA). This way, skills gaps are identified and the necessary solutions put into place.

A properly researched TNA will create a picture of what training is necessary and why. The best way to ensure that the fullest possible picture is obtained is to vary the techniques used to collect the raw information. These methods will include focus groups, interviews with individuals and direct observation. It should cover staff at all levels of the business. Focus groups, handled properly, can give a relaxed atmosphere in which staff can bounce ideas and thoughts off each other. One-on-one interviews can potentially be less stressful for the more hesitant members of a team to give feedback.

One of the keys to a realistic TNA is to ensure that the department carrying out the review is trusted by the employees giving feedback. Many individuals are deeply suspicious of HR questioning and assume it will lead to redundancies.

Once the results are in, the TNA needs careful analysis to see if there are underlying trends. For example, could the whole company benefit from soft skills training? Don’t make the mistake of trying to buy courses off the shelf. Speak to training providers and develop specific training programmes.