How hard is it to embrace complexity? Actually quite simple if you have a 21st century thinking partner.

On any day of the week, CPS might need to train:

• Relatively mature people who feel overwhelmed by email, their CRM system, electronic filing and and product knowledge data resources.
• Small companies that need skills to install, troubleshoot and manage their networks.
• Companies with people who need to gear up on Microsoft software, at varying levels, on different products, including Project.

Computer skills development need at least a short needs analysis, and a clear understanding of the training outcomes, and what they will look like. Skilled people do this, and train your people on the content they need to know, tailored to their situations, using examples that create real understanding.

There is a scarcity of instructors who know the answer to thousands of questions, most of which have nothing to do with the course they are teaching. Does x conflict with y? How does it sync with z? Can I install a with b? How will it work with this other device? These are the questions where it is critical that the trainer never says “I don’t know.”

CPS is proud to have Bobbie Russell leading our computer training work. There is no question he cannot answer, and his teaching gifts are amazing.  Whether his students are self-styled “dinosaurs” who believed that they would never “get” computers, or IT geeks, he achieves the desired results, and more.

A life-long learner, Bobbie is one of the rare trainers who anticipate new needs as they evolve in business, and is ready to deliver the learning required. He also has both the technological and the business knowledge to customize training. Like the rest of the CPS team, he can therefore deliver targeted solutions that solve clients’ IT training needs, whether working with basic users, or with more advanced levels of technological training.

Bobbie began his IT career the Air Force Computer Communication Systems Control Technical Training School at Keesler AFB MS.  He served for eight years, including being selected to teach at Keesler.  Since then, he has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies, locally and internationally, and spent several years as VP of Information Services for an INC 500 organization. He finally chose local work, teaching and family over the demands of on-going corporate travel.

Bobbie therefore offers our customers everything they need. This includes a wide, business-based understanding of the role technology plays in business, his gift for teaching, and a deep commitment to sharing his enormous skills and knowledge with his students.

He is also a great fit with CPS’s work in global business, as he has traveled widely and is half-German, as his father too served, and he was born abroad.

Bobbie currently teaches Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, and various customized courses for public and private sector clients. He holds the following  qualifications and certifications:

Bobbie Russell

• A.A.S. Electronics Systems Technology
• A.A.S Instructor of Technologies and Military  Sciences
• Occupational Instructor Certification (OIC)
• EMC Proven Builder Associate
• Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer + Messaging *
• Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• CompTIA Network +
• CompTIA Security +

The reason is simple. Businesses needs this monthly reminder that they have paid towards training, and that they can claim money back, if they help to upgrade the skills of their local workforce. Workforce competency is the basis of community prosperity, so businesses are incentivized to train as they sign their monthly checks, that become regular reminders that their taxes are being put to good use, and will be returned to them, if they invest in their people.

At first glance, incentives shouldn’t be necessary. The ROI/ROE of training is huge. Businesses benefit with significantly better engagement, productivity, competitive advantage and retention, process improvement and innovation, sales and customer service and (of course) profits.

However training is also a hassle. Someone has to find good training, and then take people off the job to train them, go through red tape to get one’s money back from the Workforce, and deal with the negative fall-out of any previous bad training. (Most companies have paid good money, at some time in the past, for bad or canned training. There are therefore narratives within the company about wasting time on talk-and-chalk, or death-by-PowerPoint, that bored everyone silly and delivered no lasting results.)

There are also nightmare stories floating around about how difficult it can be to get one’s training money back from a local workforce.

CPS has therefore developed a simple solution. We guide our clients through the red tape, and ensure that our client gets their payment from the county or state. We do this transparently and ethically.

The exceptions are non-profit organizations. For-profit organizations receive funding because their workforces are legally obliged to support their workforce development. Non-profit organizations do not pay the taxes that fund the workforces, and are therefore usually not eligible for funding, unless they have a for-profit as part of their organization structure. Non-profits may still receive training funds, but this tends to be on a ‘grace-and-favor’ basis.

One last point. Let’s stop talking about these training funds as “grants.”  Grants are gifts. When you pay your taxes for a purpose and receive monies for that purpose, this is not a grant. It is a refund or funding, and it is your due, not a gift.

You can register directly with CPS by phone or email,  or on-line via the Eventbrite site. Here are links for on-line registration for:

1) Sales to, and retention of, diverse and multi-cultural customers

2) Strategic leadership for 21st century business

3) Confidence and self esteem

If you want the register for a workshop, or have any queries, or wish to discuss a) other open workshops, b) presentations c) customized, on-site workshops or d) CPS’s assistance with state funding:

Please contact: Glynis @ 813-598-9184 (direct). Email: glynis@c-psolutions.com or

Hilton @ 813-598-9180 (direct). Email: hilton@c-psolutions.com

When you register for an event, you will receive immediate (asap) confirmation. We will also email you a ‘formal’ invoice for your accounting records, including the details of CPS’s DBE, woman-owned and minority-owned certifications for your diversity purchasing program. It will be marked paid if you have paid on-line.

Terms and Conditions

Registration / admission

Registration will be treated as a firm booking once it has been received by internet, letter, fax, e-mail or telephone.

Admission to workshops will be determined by the order in which registrations are received. Admission by means of a waiting list is possible in the event of cancellations of binding registrations by other participants. There is, however, no right to admission. Competency & Performance Solutions LLC (referred to from here onwards as CPS) reserves the right to refuse admission or registration to any CPS workshop.

Any registered participant should contact CPS if he or she believes that an unsuitable person has registered for his/her workshop, or that a registration may be for the purposes of harassing another participant. CPS will then take steps to ensure that a safe, comfortable learning environment is provided.

Service provided

1. The workshop fee per person and date includes payment in full for the event described, including refreshments described and training material. Taxes are included.

2. Changes to the program for organizational reasons are possible due to the need for long-term planning. Whether an event takes place is also dependent on a minimum number of participants registering for the event. CPS must, therefore, reserve the right to make changes regarding the dates on which workshops take place. This may include minor changes of venue, but venue quality and general location are guaranteed. CPS undertakes to notify participants of any changes in time and in a suitable manner, unless they have not provided correct and adequate contact details.

Participants are entitled to cancel their registration immediately, by phone, email or in writing in such a case.

3. CPS is entitled to cancel a course for material reasons, such as for instance the illness of a facilitator, or a low number of participants. [CPS does, however, have back-up facilitators for most programs.]

4. CPS will refund workshop fees that have already been paid, in the event of a cancellation by a participant in accordance with section 2) above, or will issue a credit for the amount.

5. If a participant registers for a workshop, the fee is payable unless the participant cancels by email or phone (not voice mail) within 7 days of the workshop. In such a case, 95% of the fee will be refunded. The balance will be retained to cover credit card costs etc.

This means that “no-shows” who book a workshop, but do not come, are liable for the cost of their workshops.

6. A participant can cancel but send another participant in his/her place with twelve hours notice to CPS, by phone or email, without incurring any penalty.

Discounts

CPS often grants quantity rebates and early registration rebates on standard workshop fees.

1. The participant or his/her purchasing agent may simply short-pay, by the amount of the discount, if booking early.

2. The participants and their purchasing agent may simply short pay for group bookings after agreeing any discount, and receiving an email from CPS confirming the rate for their participants.

3. An “early registration” discount means paid on-line registration for the workshop, 5 working days before the course date, or by written agreement (email) with CPS.