You will need a number of things, including access to a computer, email, etc, to get the best out of this course.

Let us begin with the most important requirements: time and support.

Time and support

To really benefit from this course, you need to give yourself sufficient time to learn. Experience shows that you learn best by learning 'little and often'. It is better to do an hour a day than to try to do five hours at the weekend. We'll discuss time management later in this chapter.

This experience is all too common. In every organisation, time is the one resource that we all share. And it doesn't matter how senior we are, all of us have exactly 24 hours in each day. And although we all know how busy we are, we often aren't aware of how busy others are.

Before you continue with this course, you need to get a commitment from your 'boss' or line manager, as well as your colleagues, that your participation in this course will benefit the organisation (and not just you). If you don't have that support, it is unlikely that you will be able to complete this course.

If you are to complete this course:

One hour a day means that during this course you will not be available to do other work for at least one hour every working day. Inevitably, that means that someone else in your organisation is going to have to do an additional one hour a day to cover for you.

Have you discussed the implications of this with your colleagues?

Do they know that they may have to work harder while you are doing this course?

Does your line manager know that she may need to do longer hours to cover your absence?

Is she happy with that?

Are your colleagues happy with that?

Have you described to them how they will benefit by your attending this course? Are they likely to support you if they themselves won't benefit in some way?

If you have not already done so, we strongly recommend that you meet with your line manager and your colleagues and negotiate the support you will need to enable you to devote at least one hour a day to this course for its entire duration.

Access to computer

You will need access to a computer for at least one hour a day.

Have you discussed your needs with your line manager and colleagues? Are they aware that if you are using a computer for one hour a day, then others will not have access to the computer during that time?

Are they happy with that?

It would be an advantage, but not vital, to have access to word processing software on the same computer.

There are some things that are best read in printed form. We provide these as 'pdf' files (portable document format) which can be read using Acrobat Reader. You will, therefore, need access to a printer.