We all know that training is good for us, whether that be joining a gym or learning a new skill, but if you already work in publishing and have already studied publishing, should you still do additional courses?

Here are five reasons to do vocational training…

1. Publishing is changing: New technologies, formats and standards are appearing practically daily and keeping up-to-date is a major challenge. The Publishing Training Centre (PTC) has recently launched new courses in digital publishing, such as EPUB, Apps, and The Digital Publisher and we are continuously refreshing our course list and the programmes of existing courses.

2. Learn from experienced professionals: Your tutor has a wealth of experience. At the PTC our tutors all currently work in the fields they teach and are acknowledged specialists in those fields. Tutors such as Lynette Owen (Selling Rights), Richard Balkwill (Copyright and Legal Issues for Publishers) and Alex Brown and Francis Cave (Working with XML) are well known experts in the subjects they teach.

3. Courses offer great networking opportunities: You can find out how others are approaching the same problems that your company is facing, learn from the mistakes and successes of others and meet some great people in the industry. We take our delegates for lunch at a local pub, which gives our delegates the opportunity to socialise with the group over some really great food, and the residential courses offer even more great social possibilities.

4. Be more productive: Learning new ways to do tasks often makes you more efficient in your current position. You can learn a programme such as InDesign by downloading tutorials from the web and studying a book, but two days on a course can vastly improve your productivity.

5. Publishing is a very competitive field: There are hundreds of people applying for every job advertised. You need to stand out from the crowd and the additional training on your CV could just tip the balance.

Training injects that little spark of motivation that is often needed to make a tough job more manageable, a dreary task more palatable or perhaps just inject a bit of interest into a job that has grown stale. It benefits your company and it helps your career.

Contact The Publishing Training Centre for information and advice about specialised training for publishing professionals – 020 8874 2718 or www.train4publishing.co.uk.