The traditional approach to software training was to use instructors in classrooms. This kind of training is often held away from the office, requiring absence from the office to attend the course and for any travel time involved.

But now there is a better way. With the introduction of multimedia PCs came a new approach to training - Computer-based Training, or CBT as it's known. It is effective, convenient, and economic. The benefits of our CD-ROM based CBT courses can be summarised as follows:

Saves you money
Proven high quality
Convenient to use
Delivers consistent training
Learn at your own pace
Use as often as you want
Save your scarce resources
Improves productivity
Projects a modern image

CD-ROM courses are extremely good value for money. Just £99 (£49.50 to qualifying sectors) buys you unlimited use in a single office. Compared to instructor-led training (typically £250 per person per day), it's a great price for one person. It's fantastic value if you have several staff to train, or have an on-going training need.

Courses on Disk's CD-ROM courses really do make your training budget go further. No longer will you be tempted not to provide your staff with vital training on cost grounds.

And with no travel involved you'll save even more money. Your staff won't waste time travelling and they will also avoid delayed or missed buses, trains, and flights getting to the course venues.

Our CD-ROM courses really do work. More than 2,000 organisations have already adopted them to train thousands of staff. We harness modern technologies to provide high quality training, and we use proven instructional methods to ensure staff are trained effectively.

All courses are developed by a team of professionals with specialist expertise in accounting, education, and software development. So you can be assured of their quality.

You can use CD-ROM courses whenever and wherever you want; they are very convenient to use. All you need is a PC and the course CD-ROM.

Do the course at the office, at home, or at any other location. Do the course in office hours, in the evening, at weekends, whilst travelling, or when relaxing on holiday. No other form of training is so flexible.

Don't let staff time go to waste; if they have gaps in the work programme, schedule training for them. They can do a single lesson or chapter whenever time becomes available.

Unlike instructor-led training, there are no venues, instructors, or travel to book, and no time spent travelling to course venues.

CD-ROM courses are the same every time you run them. Consistency is important; you want to know exactly what training your staff will receive. Unlike instructor-led training, CD-ROM courses cannot have a bad day, change their instructor, or penalise the 'slow-coach' of the group.

Without these variations in quality you can be confident that all staff experience the same standard of training. Around your own set of standards you can design assessment programmes. If necessary, any part of the course can be repeated as often as is needed for staff to reach the required standard.

What's more, our courses are easier, quicker and cheaper to evaluate. It's often impractical or too expensive to send one person on an external course to evaluate it. CD-ROM CBT does not have these problems.

Instructor-led courses wrongly assume that every person learns at the same speed. But we all know that these courses often progress at the pace of the slowest student in the group. Unfortunately the course finishes at a prescribed time and it's almost inevitable that someone will have been disadvantaged. Instructor-led courses lack the ability to adapt their pace to suit everyone.

None of this is the case with CD-ROM training. Each person takes the course at the own speed, replaying a lesson as often as they need to assimilate the knowledge or skills imparted. No-one else is slowed down as a result. By the end of the course, everyone has attained the save level of proficiency but in a time scale to suit themselves.

You can use your CD-ROMs as many times as you want - there is no limit. Which means staff can repeat their training to refresh their knowledge, or they can defer some parts of the course until the time they need the skills.

You can avoid bottlenecks in demand for the CD-ROM by ordering multiple copies. Remember, you get a discount for the second and all subsequent copies purchased on a single order.

Organisations regularly use their own key people as in-house trainers. CD-ROM courses make this approach unnecessary. A better approach is to use CD-ROM courses for basic training, where supervision is unnecessary. Then focus your trainers on advanced training and problem-solving. It's a better use of their time and more rewarding for them.

This is one way that CD-ROM courses complement instructor-led training.

With no courses, venues or travel to book there's no need for your staff to wait for their training. CD-ROM courses get them up and running with the software in a matter of hours. And they can focus them on just the topics that need to learn today, ensuring that they'll be productive much more quickly than with conventional instructor-led training. Other topics can be taken as and when the knowledge can be put into immediate use.

So, don't waste time and money teaching your staff subject matter that is not relevant today. Give them a CD-ROM course - its for life, not one day or week.

And benefit in other ways. For example, utilise CD-ROM courses as support tools. They're better than the software package's own online Help systems at showing you how to accomplish a task, and they'll provide the answers to your questions without you having to call on outside help services. Perhaps you have an internal Help Desk that supports your staff in their use of computer hardware and software!

Using CD-ROM courses for your training projects the right image to your staff and other stakeholders. You'll leave a lasting impression on your customers and suppliers, but above all your staff with thank you the most. Because its modern and easy to use they love using it. They'll enjoy the simple, self-paced format of the training. Shy staff will welcome the fact that they don't have to fear participating in classroom training; they can now learn in private. Disabled staff also benefit. Sadly, very few training venues are equipped to take staff with physical disabilities.

Happy staff mean productive staff, which can only be good for business.