Learning opportunities for career advancement.

We have always considered learning and development a great topic to write about. In relation to our tradition of featuring career seminars from LearningDB.com and Career Events every Monday, we don't stop in researching so we won't sound redundant. For our readers' happiness, this is.

But perhaps, one of the smartest things we ever did was to give career advice at the same time as promote, what with the many positive comments we had received that time. It's amazing that we haven't repeated the style until now (considering its immense success and our tendency to prefer routine over novelty when it comes to style), but here's to giving its much deserved repeat performance. Needless to say, what we've come up for today is a nod to that great blogging idea.

Not that we're being vague here, but yes, that's one reason behind this shift and also, the fact that we're in bad need for freshness. We'll really appreciate your comments later, if you happen to prefer reading career tips rather than features of learning opportunities (and has hated Mondays ever since the start of this little tradition).

Let's balance things out! Let's make interactions so we can reach with an agreement. After all, isn't the New Year about resolutions and changing for the good?

Nevertheless, since we have many things to promote for today (and this isn't supposed to be for solicitation to begin with), let's proceed to the real topic at hand, shall we?

First stop, Career Events. Think of this as a reminder if you've already signed up or a last minute promotion if you're still thinking about whether to attend or not. We're starting the year with a seminar on business etiquette, entitled "Unleash Your Image Power Through Dressing & Etiquette" with Audrey Quek. We're still accepting sign ups at www.jobsdb.com.sg/StaticContent/SG/CareerEvents/events/Unleash-your-image-power.htm, but the downer here is that you won't have a chance for the free FlowerAdvisor vouchers anymore. So don't be late the next time. If you want to further your knowledge on communication skills and presentation skills, we suggest you sign up for February's Present with Confidence as early as now.

LearningDB.com regular, Sandra Sandu-Reeves is set to have three seminars this January. So if you happen to be a fan of this career expert, attending at least two of the three is a great way to show support. Mind Your English is going to be on Thursday already, but we're still accepting enlistment at www.learningdb.com.sg/programmes/sandra-mindeng.htm.

We've scheduled Sandra's Smart Time Management to take place on Jan 19. That's Wednesday next week. We recommend those who want to learn stress techniques and improve their EQ skills to attend. The last one from the roster is POWER E-MAILS that get results! For those with technical support jobs, sales jobs, customer service jobs, receptionist jobs, secretary jobs, admin jobs, and hr jobs, this is a great investment!

Shirley Taylor is another popular presenter for LearningDB.com and she'll be facilitating two seminars this January. So yes, if you're a fan, you know what to do. Her Energise Your E-mail Writing Skills will be on Jan 19 while the first ever session of Success Skills for Secretaries and Support Staff this 2011 will be on Jan 20, the next day.

For those looking to improve their business skills, LearningDB.com has got two business seminars coming up. Amar Haris' Business Goals Workshop is unique because the facilitator will follow-up with participants at the end of each quarter of the year to track accomplishment of goals. The other one is John Ho's classic, Business Finance for Non-financial Managers. Basic finance lessons for those with hr manager jobs, it manager jobs, cs manager jobs, and marketing manager jobs.

Because we still have a career question to answer, we're just listing down the rest of the offerings here:

21 Jan -- Emotional Intelligence at Work
21 Jan -- Microsoft Office Productivity Buffet
31 Jan -- EQ Techniques - To Improve Personal Effectiveness At Work

For more information, please contact LearningDB.com at 6861 1000 or email to learning@jobsdb.com.sg Links to the seminars are at www.learningdb.com.sg/default.htm#Jan.

And done. Now, allow us to shift to the career topic in question.

The topic of counter offer has always struck us as challenging, not because we're not as familiar with it as perhaps, resume writing or job interviewing, but because in this case, success is dependent on what's happening around; ergo research needs to be done first. Not to mention, the need to validate those research materials if they are indeed telling the truth.

And so, is now a good time to try out the promise of counter offers? In salary increase or receiving other employee benefits, that is? It seems that it is. A recent press release from Hays Singapore has listed down counter offer as an issue that top employers should take note of this 2011. It's a new upload, so we understand if you haven't read it yet. Do so now at www.jobsdb.com.sg/SG/EN/Resources/JobSeekerArticle/Top-Employment.htm?ID=597.

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