Category: Employment

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Are you safe in your office?

I always thought the office was the safest place to be. No heavy machinery, no flashing lights and no hard hats gives you the sign that an office is a pretty safe to be. The pressure of deadlines however and increasing piles of work, working close to the same people all day, every day and the anxiety of dealing with people both personally and professionally could make you feel unsafe.

I was having a chat with Brendan from our new EzyLearn Business Partner – AlertForce Pty Ltd – and he pointed out some of the issues that arise in the workplace, he also proudly commented about the success they are having with their online safety courses. Brendan pointed out

“Every year thousands of office workers are involved in incidents and accidents that result in long-term injuries”

and when he explained some of the common causes they seemed pretty logical to me. The key with safety training though is even though it seems logical some of the basic safety principles must be explained and followed by everyone in the office. The one that stands out most to me is the proper method for lifting boxes (they call it manual handling), it’s simple, everyone knows it, but it takes a little extra effort. I think it’s worth it.

Another EzyLearn Business Partner, Registered Training Organisation Maxis Solutions at Chatswood offers a range of courses in many different occupations. Maxis Solutions owner, Pam Gum, pointed out to me that Occupational Health and Safety is included in Certificate II level courses in Business and Information Technology (IT) and it can include simple things like stretching and giving your eyes a break.

So, take a look around and see if you can spot the safety issues as they occur.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

MYOB Online Course Videos — Creating Customer Cards

Click on the heading to view the image or video if you are receiving this via email.

Creating customer cards in MYOB is easy! To enter a new customer, simply click on ‘New’; this will bring up a new window.

It’s also simple to edit customers here. Say you want to change postal or contact details, simply click on ‘Customer’ and hit ‘Edit’.

You will note that MYOB gives you a choice in the designation section to enter a company or an individual. All customer entries are stored alphabetically so make sure if you are entering an individual you use their last name first.

You use the tab key as a shortcut to go through all the fields.

A handy hint: When a customer has a longer address, such as a unit number or a Suite number, hold the Control Key and press ‘Enter’ for a second line.

Also, if you have tabbed past a field you need, simply hold the Shift Key and hit the ‘Tab’ key to go up to the field above.

Video Reference: 501204

Link for existing students: http://myobcourse.com/elearning/mod/resource/view.php?id=359

For information about our Online MYOB Training Course and new Lifetime Membership for all students, please visit: www.studymyob.com.au

Please feel free to send your comments about this video to: sales@ezylearn.com.au

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Online MYOB training is better than just CD’s or workbooks

In the evolution of our online training courses we originally started with a flash based player that operated in our training centres. It was easy to use and accessible on all computers. We then took a look at how to deliver the same consistency of experience using our training videos in your home, an environment that could be completely difference and that we have no control over. At first we thought about CD’s and after trying some different technologies, we came to the realisation that the experience different from user to use and computer to user. Will online learning really be the best way?

One issue that we came across in delivering our courses online was whether customers have a good enough broadband connection to receive the relatively large videos files through to them. The other question we had was how long should students have access to the training materials. In the end, we decided to go as OPEN as we possibly could. We opted to use technology that would enable all students to access the materials, whether they were on a Windows based computer or Mac.

The result is that you can now use our training material for life (no need to try to locate those scratchy CD’s) and you can use a combination of videos (with live demonstrations and audio commentary), Workbooks (with actual exercises you can try) and Knowledge Reviews (to test your skills) and it works on all platforms.

See our online MYOB training course outline.

[button link=”http://www.myobcourse.com.au/training/page_enrol.html”] Enrol into our online MYOB course[/button]

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Online MYOB training for New Zealand students

We’ve had some inquiries and enrolments from New Zealand students and this blog is to help you understand some fundamental differences between Australian and New Zealand versions.

The first thing you need to be aware of is that the knowledge review questions used in our MYOB Payroll Introduction (course 505) use the sample company file which comes with the free MYOB Test drive. From discoveries made by our New Zealand students the sample file contains different information in different countries. You need to use the Australian version to get the correct answers.

This brings another problem, when you try to download the Australian version of the test drive you need to enter a phone number. One of our students entered our telephone number as the contact number and we have no problem with you doing that if you are an EzyLearn student. If we hear something different from MYOB we’ll let you know.

I should also mention at this point that this might also apply to our students from Canada, China, Korea, UK and other parts of the world.

If you want to take a look at what students have said about our course click here.

If you want to receive these updates in your email, subscribe to the EzyLearn blog here: https://ezylearn.com.au/

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Are you an absolute beginner, but not a dummy?

Computer Learners course Couple

Do you know how to use a mouse? Would you believe that a lot of people don’t? Skills like what right-clicking does, using the scroll ball and lifting the mouse during use are skills that make a huge difference to many computer users.

When we operated training centres in Sydney from 2000-2006 one of our most popular series of courses was Absolute Beginners, Typing and Saving files, Website browsing and searching and using email. We’ve always had training materials for absolute beginners, but we’ve now introduced them as a stand alone online course called “Computer Learners”. You can visit www.computerlearners.com.au to see all the topics that are covered in the 6 beginners courses and you can enrol in all of them for only $97.

This course would ideally suit an absolute beginner with a friend who is willing to help them get started and if they get stuck. We’ve used it for retraining and with a bit of one to one coaching students have been able to access the learning material and study by themselves.

You can enrol at our website and if you operate a training centre and need a basic guide (includes 6 training workbooks) please contact our sales department at sales@ezylearn.com.au.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

How did you go in the MYOB skills test?

Answer Stats for MYOB online training course free public skills test

We recently made a quick MYOB skills test available on our website to coincide with the launch of our full online MYOB training and assessment tools and the result from over 3000 website visitors showed some very interesting information. The average score was 44.74, with the bulk of students receiving between 31-70%.

Most fascinating was that less than 10% of all attempts managed to get the first two questions right! These questions related to what options are found in the command centres.

Tests are a great way to highlight learning outcomes of a course while providing links to the exact training material you need to provide the correct answer and our online MYOB training course includes 9 knowledge reviews covering the Day-to-day operations of a business, bank reconciliation (which if completed successfully allows you to complete your BAS in less than 5 minutes) and Payroll Introduction.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

MYOB Training Course and the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers

MYOB online training course - Institute_of_Certified_Bookkeepers

MYOB online training course - Institute_of_Certified_BookkeepersWhen you enrol into our Online MYOB Training Course from today onwards you receive LifeTime access to all training materials to use as resource after your initial training (this also includes new training materials that we create) AND you can become a member of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers at half the normal price.

We are working hard every day to give you the skills and certification to be a confident MYOB software user plus give you tools to improve your professional profile for business development or career development.

Take a quick quiz to test your MYOB skills.

If you are ready to enjoy the benefits of being an EzyLearn student, enrol now online and start by 5pm tomorrow afternoon (next business day).

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Advanced Excel: eliminating errors in functions

Microsoft excel online training course

Forward this email to your friends so they can subscribe themselves. Click on the heading to visit the EzyLearn Blog

One of the most efficient features available in Microsoft Excel is the ability to create a formula and then copy it into a large number of subsequent cells. When you perform a dbroad copy and paste like this, Depending on the type of data, you’ll get either a #DIV/0 or a #VALUE error if the source cells don’t contain the correct data. You could scan the spreadsheet manually and modify each cell that contains such an error or use the IFERROR function when creating your original formula.

The IFERROR function is composed of two parts – the original function that you wanted to create (such as dividing two numbers) and a value to use when this function doesn’t make sense (like trying to divide by 0 or a word).

Let’s take a basic table of data that contains three columns. The total amount of a restaurant bill is in the first column, and the second column is comprised of the number of people in the party that received the bill. In the third column, we want to calculate the price per person.

Advanced Excel Functions - IFERROR - online Excel course

Task: Use the IFERROR function

(1)     Create the spreadsheet above using the data in columns A & B.

(2)     Perform a simple calculation to divide the Total Price by the number of people to get the answer in Colum C

(3)     Notice the error messages

(4)     Click on cell C2 and type the following function =IFERROR(A2/B2,”Unknown”)

(5)     Use the fill handle to copy it down the column. Notice that where-ever the error normally occurred; it has been replaced by the word Unknown.

(6)     This time try =IFERROR(A2/B2,””) and notice that the cells where an error occurred are now showing no value.

If you’d like to participate in our online Microsoft Excel training course visit this link.

Want to do a course online but not sure how online training courses work?

If you want to have a group of people trained in your office or our training centre call us on (02) 9971 0000 or visit our online schedule to enrol into Class-Based Training in Chatswood, Sydney.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Advanced Excel Tip: IF Statements

Advanced Microsoft Excel Training Course - Sales Commission IF - intro

Advanced Microsoft Excel Training Course - Sales Commission IF - intro

IF Statements are what is called a LOGICAL test, such as is this value larger than this, if true do (or display) this, if false then do (or display) that. IF statements can be used for a lot of different things and all of them save you having to manual go through the data and perform the calculations themselves.

These are some examples of how IF statement can be used:

= IF (Question eg B17>B16, do this, otherwise do this)

OR, if you want to show text

=IF(Question eg B17>B16, “Text if correct”, “Text if incorrect”)

OR if you want to perform a calculation

=IF(Question eg B17>B16, if yes multiply sales by 2%, if not multiply sales by 1.5%)

We’ve attached the file that we used to create the image in this blog post so you can open the file and see the formulas that we have entered into cells D7 and E7. Click on each cell to see the formula. See if you can duplicate these values down each column.

Excel exercise file: Sales Commission IF – Intro

If you’d like to participate in our online Microsoft Excel training course visit this link.

Want to do a course online but not sure how online training courses work?

If you want to have a group of people training in your office or our training centre call us on (02) 9971 0000 or visit our online schedule to enrol into Class-Based Training in Chatswood, Sydney.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Want to work at home for EzyLearn?

remote contractor and virtual assistant group

remote contractor and virtual assistant groupWe are building the Remote Contractor network of work from home contractors and at the same time, we are recruiting for online marketing consultants. You don’t have to be an expert though, simply go searching through Australian job forums, social networks (on Facebook) and comments on Twitter accounts where you think it would be good to mention EzyLearn’s online courses.

All you need to do is open up and Excel spreadsheet, and copy and paste the hyperlinks of website forums and social networks (like facebook groups) into each row of the spreadsheet.

We’ll go through the list you create and if it looks like a good list, and we pick you as an EzyLearn online marketer, we’ll pay you to inform the Australia jobseekers about our online courses. Simple.

Have any questions? Send an email to Richard at sales@ezylearn.com.au.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

What does a webmaster look like? Could you be one?

Learn how to use Wordpress and social media training course

Learn how to use WordPress and social media training courseIf you mentioned the word Webmaster 5 years ago you would imagine someone slightly geeky, who drinks cola, has thick rimmed glasses and talks incessantly about the latest technology and gadgets. Things have changed. The technology used to create websites was the domain of nerds who enjoyed writing code and getting dirty with technology using programs like FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Flash etc, but now it’s the domain of staff members, marketing people and remote contractors (Virtual Assistants who work from home). Why has it changed?

The most significant aspects of website design are:

  • The template (or theme) that’s used including colour scheme, branding and navigation
  • The  images and copy (text) used to fill the site
  • Promoting and marketing the website

Modern day Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla and even older ones like Drupal make everything much easier and here’s why:

  • Thousands of designers create templates that you can purchase for $20 to $300
  • Once a template or theme is designed and setup the content management is the same (just like using Microsoft Word)
  • Writing articles, creating extra pages and adding to your navigation becomes as easy as selecting a check box and picking a category.

So is it really something that you could do?

wordpress themes included in Webmaster course
wordpress themes included in Webmaster course

Have you heard about WordPress, Google, Facebook and Twitter? Can you use your computer to access your email, do internet banking and accessing other online services? Have you heard about or used PayPal? If you have, then you are at least familiar with some of the tools used by a modern webmaster. Combining these new online marketing tools and WordPress CMS driven websites you can get busy and start creating.

The Internet, smart phones, cloud computing and VoIP are making the world a smaller place and allows people to work from home but still remain digitally connected. There has been a significant shift towards remote contracting (virtual assistants) and the concept of mums working from home is now commonplace.

If you want to come on the Webmaster journey with EzyLearn we have the WordPress course. It’s a step-by-step system of setting up, creating content and images, building the contents and then promoting your own business using all the tools we’ve mentioned in this blog post. Best of all you’ll have an internet guru educating and coaching you each step of the way until your website is complete so not only will you have your own website and tools to promote it, but you’ll have the skills to promote yourself to other businesses and help them with their website management.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Learn Powerful PowerPoint in 4 hours

If you are receiving this post via email click the heading to visit our blog and watch the free PowerPoint training video included.

EzyLearn online Microsoft PowerPoint course
Peter Costello using Powerpoint (from smh.com.au)

Microsoft PowerPoint is a fun program to learn that gives your presentations structure and professionalism. We recently spent 4 hours getting a technical product manager up to speed with PowerPoint so that he can use Powerpoint slides to demonstrate his companies products to their dealer network. Geoff had used the program only sparingly over the years but the time had come for him to quickly get up to speed so he could look professional with his dealer network.

In the 4 hour training session he had all the skills to create his own presentations from scratch, use company templates, create flowcharts and diagrams, charts and animations and even incorporate music and video into his presentations. He also had access to our online course and some course notes to keep as a reference.

See our PowerPoint course outline and enrol into our online course, or make contact to organise a half day training session at your office or our training centres.

If you want to subscribe to receive new blog posts in your email subscribe using the feedburner form on the blog page.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Are MYOB skills good enough to be a bookkeeper?

MYOB bookkeeper with Cert IV in Bookkeeping

MYOB bookkeeper with Cert IV in BookkeepingAccounting in the past

I remember the days when MYOB was a young company called Data Tech Pty Ltd, they were based in Crows Nest and gave trials of their software on floppy disk and videos on how powerful their software was on VHS. It was also an awkward situation if you wanted to become “certified”. Many people learnt how to use the software and offered their services and it wasn’t until you had a couple customers under your belt that you could become certified by MYOB. This scenario is now very different.

Education businesses around Australia (and New Zealand) now have strict guidelines to follow when they deliver and assess their training (as part of the Cert IV in Training and Assessment) and there’s a whole new official language which includes: Scope of Registration, Units of competency, Learning outcomes, competency mapping, Core subjects, electives, qualifications, subjects etc. The great news is that we are now “mapping” our training material with the outcomes for the Cert IV in Bookkeeping!

This qualification will be mandatory by 2013 if you plan to perform bookkeeping tasks for a business whether you are an employee, contractor or a small business owner.

In fact to give you an idea of how specific and focussed this new qualification is here are the electives (based on your desired goal):

Contract Bookkeeper
• (FNSICCUS401B) Deliver a professional service to customers
• (FNSICCUS402B) Maintain customer relationship

Small Business Owner
• (FNSICORG510B) Manage own professional development
• (FNSPRAC501B) Manage and maintain small/medium business operations

Permanent Paid Bookkeeper
• (FNSICORG510B) Manage own professional development
• (FNSICCUS402B) Maintain customer relationship

Are you a BAS agent?

You might also be interested to know that “If you provide BAS services for a fee or other reward, you are required by law to be registered as a BAS agent” with the ATO.

Our offer to students

We recently announced the Lifetime MYOB course student membership for all students so you can use our learning resources (including updates as they are created) and now we are happy to inform that we are mapping our training material to the desired learning outcomes for the subjects which make up the Cert IV in Bookkeeping. We’ll be working closely with an RTO (Registered Training Organisation) in a VET partnership and we’ll be able to help you get some fundamental MYOB and accounting skills via our online course, PLUS provide you with a pathway to your Certificate IV in Bookkeeping (including assessment and certification).

Visit out MYOB course website or enrol as a student.

Make sure you subscribe to our blog to receive these articles in your email. If this has been forwarded to you, click the title of the blog post and subscribe at our website.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

How much do you know about MYOB?

MYOB Quick free skills test and training

MYOB Quick free skills test and trainingTests are an excellent way to master new skills. If they are created with a learning outcome in mind they force you to answer based on your current knowledge and then provide you with an explanation of what the correct answer is and where you can go to find more.

We’ve recently updated our online MYOB training course to include over 80 knowledge review questions covering most aspects of operating MYOB software on a day to day basis. For each question we provide you with the correct answer and information about where you can go to review your knowledge and get it right the next time.

You’re invited to attempt a quick MYOB skills test to see how much you know.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Microsoft Excel 2007 & 2010 Training – menus and ribbons

If you are receiving this as an email, click on the heading to see the free training video at the EzyLearn blog.

Microsoft Excel is still the worlds most popular spreadsheet program by a long shot. I’ve used Google’s spreadsheet and it is a fantastic tool if you want to access or share a spreadsheet online but it’s still not the same as using Microsoft Excel and with the prices becoming quite competitive and Microsoft offering new ways of sharing Microsoft Office documents in “the Cloud” it is still easier to use what you know, ie. Microsoft Excel.

We are in production of our 2010 Microsoft Office training videos as part of the beefing up of our online training courses and this videos is one of the new batch covering fundamental tools in Microsoft Excel 2007/2010.

If you wish to learn how to use Microsoft Excel at a beginner or intermediate level, Steve who created the training material will be teaching at Maxis Solutions training centre in Chatswood in February.

Are you new to online training courses? Check out our brief tour on how online learning works.

Posted on by — 6 Comments

LIFETIME membership for MYOB online training course

OldCoupleInLovebyErikclitgaad - lifetime MYOB and Excel training course We use the EzyLearn Blog to announce improvements, additions and updates to existing courses and training services and today we announce LIFETIME access to students who enrol into our MYOB Training Course from today onwards. This feature will be introduced to our other courses during the year.

It’s finally here. We’ve made some improvements to our MYOB Training course during the New Year period and are thrilled to announce the latest and greatest feature in online MYOB training. “Lifetime membership” for our online MYOB training course.

Lifetime membership means that after you have completed your course you are free to use the training site as a resource for the rest of your working life! As new content and online learning resources are created, you will have access to these resources for no extra charge.

If you agree with us that this offer is amazing share it on Twitter or Facebook and tell your friends. Otherwise head over to our online training course website to learn more about what we offer OR test your MYOB skills using our free MYOB online training skills test.

EzyLearn: That’s how easy it is.