I was quoted on Linkedin recently as having been involved in the teaching of TOP-SET for nineteen years, which seems a long, long time. But that was only the length of time I have been taking a salary from the company; it has been longer than that – since 1994, I would say, in reality!! Most of that time I have been teaching and have, over the past 10 years, been responsible, with my senior developer, for all the progress in learning and teaching that the company has made. And it has been a great deal!
What has stimulated me to write were the messages of ‘congratulations’ received, and emails from a wide selection of the many and varied people I have encountered over the years. As a seasoned ‘teacher’, I remember many of my ‘pupils’ very well. They have provided much interest and many of their suggestions have been food for thought and have been incorporated in our courses.
But what came full blown into mind was the fact that so many of you have been on the course so many years ago – in the Kraznapolski in Amsterdam, in the Mandarin Oriental in KL, in Sakalin, Esbjerg, Bintulu, Lan krabue Thailand, Kazakhstan, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Dallas, Houston, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Damascus, nr Palmyra, Libya, Baku, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Angola and Cameroon, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Aberdeen, Copenhagen, Athens, and even in Ayrshire! And although core TOP-SET remains the same, the developments over the past, say, ten years have been enormous. The courses have been dismembered and restructured; formative and summative assessment inserted (to the benefit of us all, I would say). There are new courses at all levels, in even more languages, and we have developed an e-learning programme based on the seminal work we have done on TOP-SET Root Cause Analysis. Which I think we have cracked. Assessment tells us that we have!! And auditing of our high quality tutors means that Quality Control is a priority.
And my fantasy ticket? It would be to have people from the past come and join with us again and let us know what you think!!!! There are a number of loyal souls who have done just that, and also companies who keep at it, sending their personnel regularly on courses, so benefiting hugely from ‘championing’ the use of Kelvin TOP-SET – (believe me, no system works without a ‘champion’). These wise folks pass on the belief in the message, and keep motivation alive.
So what to do? We have our ‘Thinking Caps’ on here. Our teaching and courses are now even more interactive. The aim is to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’, ‘enlist’ rather than ‘brow-beat’, so the ‘Mass Telethon’ is not the best of notions. But I have always wanted to spread the word more widely because what we at Kelvin TOP-SET do is important to me, very. It matters daily to all who work and teach for us, in Kelvin itself, or in your own companies.
So watch this space. Something will appear one of these fine days. Get in touch with your ideas. Look at our webpage. Come on our new courses. Or approach me for a discussion of any way ahead for you, your company, me or us, or all of us.
And thank you to all who got in touch; there is still much work to be done.
Lorna Ramsay