With effect immediately (the only potential exception being courses already agreed with Freelancers) 4 Minutes will not be sending out paperwork. Trainers will be expected to print their own before a course.
In addition, at the end of a ProTrainings course, Trainers will be expected to scan (to PDF) and upload all course paperwork to the course folder on the ProTrainings dashboard. All you need to is advise when done and invoice 4 Minutes. I will IQA it and if all is good, advise and pay you, at which point you can shred any paper you may have.
To allow for the additional scanning and printing, 4 Minutes will be paying an additional £20 per course (not per day for a multiday course). If you are already doing this, it is free money!
The only items we will be sending out are manual top-ups. We keep a record here, which you can reconcile online and will send a bundle any time you are in danger of getting below 12 for the courses you deliver. We will send you your own personal link so that you can verify manual holdings.
For courses already committed to and where paper hasn’t been sent out, you can choose to have the additional fee or for us to send out paperwork. New course Bookings will reflect this change.
If you are happy with this, the revised Booking letter will have the paperwork attached for printing. The Booking letter will have 4 Minutes’ and the course details for the course paperwork.
ProTrainings online tests
As mentioned elsewhere, ProTrainings offers the facility for taking online tests. Please do take them up on it – there are plenty of instructions on Trainer Central and you can always ask me. We will endeavour to get learner details onto the dashboard before the test to reduce the number of learners you have to add on the day (there will always be changes). There will be courses where you have to add everyone’s details – sorry – it happens. If you haven’t discovered it yet, the ‘bulk student import‘ button really streamlines the process.
If you don’t want to run online tests, or you can’t (no WiFi / brick phone), you will need to run manual tests & feedback forms, which means printing and marking & more to scan and upload. This will be your responsibility – we just want to see on the dashboard that they are assessed.
Because you may not be able to run an online test on the day, please always carry a full paper backup set – MCQ, answer sheets, marking grid and evaluation forms.
Internal course paperwork
Again, I’m trying to reduce paperwork. I’ve already set up online feedback (with paper backup) accessible by a QR Code. At the moment I don’t think I can do online registration, but am looking at ways of you submitting an online assessment sheet for each course. Watch this space. The £20 per course still applies from now on, but you will see this evolve over 2024 in terms of the processes.
By removing the need to send paper everywhere it obviously reduces the environmental impact of printing. I make fewer trips to post things out and can pass those cost savings to you in the £20 extra per course.
I’m a trainer like you so if you can think of any way of streamlining this process even further, do let me know.
Profit share
Finally, for 2024 onwards I’m looking at implementing a Profit Share with my Trainers (employed and freelance). It won’t be guaranteed and will depend on how many courses you deliver out of all delivered, as well as QA targets such as paperless compliance and accuracy (e.g. learner names). Watch this space. On the other hand, if 4 Minutes does well, it’s down in a large part to the quality of the Freelancer package, so why shouldn’t you benefit?
Andy
