When we started offering online courses about 3 years ago, we had not even considered that our courses would be useful to employees wanting to fill embarrassing skills gaps. During appraisals, an employee can easily bring up the desire to attend a conference detailing the latest techniques or latest research. But how easy is it for a senior manager bring up the fact that they need a little help with their presentation skills? How will a newly promoted manager feel when they have to raise the fact that they feel they have lost control of their team and could do with some management training? While some of us would feel comfortable to raise the issue, many of us would recoil at the thought. ... [more]