Blue Skye          

  Training and Consultancy

“It is more the case of our being a model to others, than of our imitating anyone else”   Pericles

Frequently Asked Questions 

 
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You are based in Fife, Scotland. Do you provide training elsewhere?

How do you keep the cost of your courses so low?

You say that you provide discounts or free places. What’s the catch?

You guys are mainly social workers, educationalists and psychologists. How can you help the tourist trade as you claim in your website?

How do we know your trainers are suited to deliver the courses?

I have a disability. How can Blue Skye help me get to your training venues?

I get very nervous when asked to do a written test and I see that some of your courses involve a Knowledge Check. Is this compulsory?

 

YYou are based in Fife, Scotland. Do you provide training elsewhere?
Yes, we work across the UK, including rural areas, which are often overlooked by training providers. We can either provide courses within venues arranged by the commissioning agency or we can arrange the venue. Some agencies prefer to have courses on their own premises; others prefer their staff to be trained in a neutral facility. Either way, we’ll fit in with what’s best for the agency.

We do more than deliver courses and much of our time is taken up providing consultancy services for small and large organisations. We also work with individuals either through our Mentoring and Coaching programmes or through our student supervision programmes.

 

How do you keep the cost of your courses so low?

The prices of our courses vary depending on a range of factors and there is more information about our pricing structure on another page of this website.

Delivering high quality training can be expensive and there are many costs which course participants will not be aware of, especially those associated with the planning, preparation and administering of courses.

We believe in ethical business practices and over-charging would not sit comfortably with our professional value base. We also understand that some of our commissioning agencies simply don’t have the sort of budgets to pay the prices that many training providers demand. We charge what we have to in order to meet our overheads and are confident that by delivering consistently high standards at lower prices will , in the long run, make us a first choice for many agencies looking to improve their performance and sustainability.

Finally, Blue Skye trainers have a genuine commitment to the ideals of public service, and so profit is not our main motivator. This is one of a number of things which make us different from other training providers.

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You say that you provide discounts or free places. What’s the catch?

There is no catch! On all our open courses we set aside one or two places free of charge. These are available to students, anyone unemployed or working for a small, local voluntary sector organisation. The cost for these free places are not passed on to other participants but are met by Blue Skye trainers themselves.

As professionals, we have a responsibility to share our knowledge and experience and we feel students or people considering a career in the service sector will benefit from that knowledge and experience. We also know that many students and volunteers for example would not get the opportunity for the kind of learning that we provide unless we make it easier for them to do so.

The discount policy has come about by a recognition that some smaller organisations and businesses, whilst wanting and needing the training, still can’t afford to pay the low prices we offer. Every organisation is welcome to apply for discounted rates, either for individual places on our open courses or for our dedicated courses for teams or organisations.

This approach might not help our bank balance but it makes us feel a whole lot better about ourselves.

However, we can’t provide free places on our dedicated courses since these are delivered exclusively to the organisation purchasing the course. 

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You guys are mainly social workers, educationalists and psychologists. How can you help the tourist trade as you claim in your website?

We have trainers from many different areas , including business, and all of us have done various jobs before settling on our chosen profession. That's one of the reasons we can connect with practitioners and managers from most industries.

Many people think that public service is limited to the kinds of services provided by local or central government departments, or voluntary sector organisations.

But public service applies to all industries where “service” is the primary aim of the organisation. The UK is no longer dependent on a manufacturing industry for its economic wealth. Our primary economic activity is the service sector which includes financial, IT, social care, and tourist services.

Until the recent problems within the global finance sector, tourism was the UK’s third biggest industry, employing approximately 2 million people, and rising. The hotel and catering sector alone employed 1.85 million people and it was estimated that  this figure would rise by 15% at least by the end of this decade. Two years ago, the hospitality sector was providing one in five new job that was created in the UK.

The low value of Sterling is likely to see a fairly robust tourist industry in the UK over the next few years. The tourist industry has many workers who work alone with children, vulnerable adults and customers who can be aggressive or violent. Many of these workers are seasonal or come from other countries with little or no understanding of UK and Scots law and are themselves vulnerable because of this. 

The principles of delivering first class hospitality and tourist services (hotel, entertainment, and so on) are the same as those for public funded services such as education, health, police, and so on. All these industries are people orientated and that’s what our courses and consultancy services are about.

We have come across many a sad story from the hospitality sector. Faced with violent or extremely aggressive behaviour , staff are often left to sort out the crisis on their own with little or no relevant training to draw upon. However all employers have a duty of care to their workforce and under health and safety legislation can be made accountable for failing to ensure staff are properly protected and trained. We provide services which can help keep tourist workers and employers safe.

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How do we know your trainers are suited to deliver the courses?

Blue Skye trainers are highly experienced and qualified professionals. We are a very transparent organisation and all our trainers and consultants have to be registered with their respective professional body, information which is easily accessible to the public.

 

I have a disability. How can Blue Skye help me get to your training venues?

Our application form includes sections about disabilities and dietary requirements and we are especially sensitive to issues of access and health. Where we have transport near at hand to the airport or train or bus station closest to our venues, we will try and meet you there by car, and take you to the venue free of charge. 

For all our open courses, we arrange venues with access for disabled participants. For courses where the team or organisation is responsible for the venue, we assume they will arrange premises suitable to their staff needs. 

The best thing to do is get in touch with us before the event and that way we can try and make sure your participation on our courses is as easy as possible.

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I get very nervous when asked to do a written test and see that some of your courses involve a written Knowledge check. Is this compulsory?
The short answer is NO!

We'd rather you felt comfortable throughout the course and worrying about doing a written test is not going to make you feel relaxed or help you to retain any of the learning.

If you really want the Certificate of Achievement, you can do the Knowledge check verbally. So if you feel uncomfortable about the written part, have a discreet word with the trainer before, during or even after the end of the course, and we'll sort that out.

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