Are Fred Pryor Seminars good?

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tdr

I'm looking to train a couple of employees on Excel and having to
choose between Fred Pryor Seminars (2-days for $128) versus a local
outfit that charges $700 for a one-day one-on-one training.

Has anyone taken Fred Pryor's Seminars (or heard anything about them)
relating to Excel? Is it a waste of time/money? These employees are
not computer savvy at all. Any insight would be appreciated.

Feel free to email me directly at (e-mail address removed)

Thanks.
 
IMHO, you aren't going to learn very much in a 1 or 2 day course. I've been
playing around with spreadsheets since the mid 80's and I'm still learning!

Community College courses?

Biff
 
I don't know personally about either of your options......I just have a
personal feeling that to spend $700 for training for one day on someone that
is "not computer savvy at all", sounds like overkill to me.....they would
probably be "taught" a lot more than they could learn in that period of
time.......just my opinion.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3
 
Ah, but you do get bored easily <G>

Biff said:
IMHO, you aren't going to learn very much in a 1 or 2 day course. I've been
playing around with spreadsheets since the mid 80's and I'm still learning!

Community College courses?

Biff
Click to expand...
 
As CLR metioned, for a 1-day course, they will have so much thrown at them and only be able to retain a fraction of it. Seems like
a waste of $700.

Even a 2-day course will not be sufficient, ESPECIALLY if they are not computer savvy.

Excel can not be learned in one or two days. As Biff mentioned, he's been working with spreadsheets/Excel since the '80's and is
still learning. Same thing here, I'm learnign new things every day.

I would suggest putting that money towards a community college course. The will go slow enough that the student will retain much
more. At my school they split up the Excel class into 3 levels that are 1 credit each, so you don't have to take all 3 levels in
the same semester. Right now my school's tuition is around $60-$70 per credit hour. It will take longer, but it will be cheaper
and the results will be much better.

I hope this helps,

Conan Kelly
 
I'm looking to train a couple of employees on Excel and having to
choose between Fred Pryor Seminars (2-days for $128) versus a local
outfit that charges $700 for a one-day one-on-one training.
Has anyone taken Fred Pryor's Seminars (or heard anything about them)
relating to Excel? Is it a waste of time/money? These employees are
not computer savvy at all.
Click to expand...

If the employees are not computer savvy to begin with, then I assume
that your objective is to expose them to enough of Excel that they can
do just the basic stuff, e.g. spreadsheets to
add/subtract/multiply/divide figures in order to maintain balances --
no fancy formats. The rest they can learn over time as the need
arises.

(Note: If you have any greater expectations, you are mistaken.)

To that end, a $700 seminar even for one person is overkill, not to
mention "a couple" of employees. Arguably, even $128 is too much to
spend.

Several alternatives come to mind.

First, look into 1-day and 2-day adult ed classes that are targeted for
beginners. Typically, they cost $50 or less. They are typically
taught in the evenings and weekends. So expect to compensate your
employees accordingly.

Second, look at the "Dummy" books or better -- something that teaches
"by example". If your employees are college-educated, they should be
able to pick up sufficient training that way.

(Note: If your employees are so "not computer savvy" that they cannot
self-start from a book, you might consider a class in "how to use a PC"
first. Typically, those classes cover Word and Excel in basic ways.
So such a class might meet your needs for Excel training, too.)

Third, go to any college -- even a high school -- and hire a mature
student to teach your employees. You should have a couple specific
problems for the student/teacher to teach your employees to solve.
Again, the objective is to learn "by example".

Finally, whatever you do, if it is expensive, consider training only
one employee, then asking that employee to train the others. My
company has done that in the past with great success.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote:
Click to expand...
Finally, whatever you do, if it is expensive, consider training only
one employee, then asking that employee to train the others. My
company has done that in the past with great success.
Click to expand...


False economy IMO. If your employee's time is worth less than a bit of
training, why do you keep them?
 
Bob said:
False economy IMO. If your employee's time is worth less than a bit of
training, why do you keep them?
Click to expand...

You seemed to have missed my points, namely: (1) tailor the training
to the employee's capability (for now), and (2) tailor the training to
the employer's expectations of the employee.

My previous comments depend on my assumption that if the employee is
"not computer savvy", the employer does not have high expectations of
the tasks that the employee will perform with Excel; ergo, much of the
expensive training might be wasteful. Conversely, if the employer has
high expectations, then it would be prudent for the employee to become
"computer savvy" before (or while) trying to learn Excel. Most
expensive Excel seminars assume a "computer savvy" user.

All of this depends on my interpretation of what the OP might mean by
"not computer savvy". My interpretation might be wrong. But if I am
right, it might be wasteful for everyone -- and distressful for the
employee -- to train the employee on esoteric features that might not
be required (for now) and might be over the employee's head. Not
everyone needs to be trained in "quantum physics" in order to do "good
science".

Having said that, I realized later that if the employee is a
statistician, for example, it might be reasonable indeed to expect the
employee to learn some of the "esoteric features" of Excel as simply a
new tool of the trade. (Although many would argue that Excel is a poor
tool for that specific example. It is just an example.)

Enough said!
 
Bruce said:
Quite. And do not underestimate the use of teaching as learning. What I mean
here is the old adage "you don't really understand it until you can teach it
to someone else" :)
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly subscribe to that philosophy. That is why I like to
teach and explain things to people. I usually learn so much myself in
the process.
Note also that experts are not usually what you need to teach complete
beginners - they assume far too much basic knowledge that the begginner
often does not have :)
Click to expand...

Although there is some truth to that, I would turn the statement around
to say: a non-expert might be an adequate -- and sometimes superior --
teacher, depending on circumstances and needs. Although adequate
knowledge is important, communication and the ability to explain things
in simple terms are equally and sometimes even more important,
especially for beginners.
 
You seemed to have missed my points, namely: (1) tailor the training
to the employee's capability (for now), and (2) tailor the training to
the employer's expectations of the employee.
Click to expand...

Quite. And do not underestimate the use of teaching as learning. What I mean
here is the old adage "you don't really understand it until you can teach it
to someone else" :)

Note also that experts are not usually what you need to teach complete
beginners - they assume far too much basic knowledge that the begginner
often does not have :)
 
I wholeheartedly subscribe to that philosophy. That is why I like to
teach and explain things to people. I usually learn so much myself in
the process.


Although there is some truth to that, I would turn the statement around
to say: a non-expert might be an adequate -- and sometimes superior --
teacher, depending on circumstances and needs. Although adequate
knowledge is important, communication and the ability to explain things
in simple terms are equally and sometimes even more important,
especially for beginners.
Click to expand...

Well said. Often the teacher needs 2 or 3 ways of explaining before the
teachee gets it :)
 
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