Underpinning all Accord activities is a commitment to providing high quality learning outcomes - for individual learners, for business and for industry organisations.

TANZ believes in open and transparent collaboration to achieve mutually beneficial and successful outcomes. The Accord is committed to applied learning and to facilitating the establishment of learning organisations. In an era of constant change, skill acquisition and the development and transfer of knowledge are critical. These will ensure organisations receive maximum return on their investment.

Vision
"Vision translates mission into truly meaningful intended results - and guides the allocation of time, energy and resources." - (Peter Senge)

To add value and to successfully align with industry, business, Government agencies and the learner, TANZ needs to understand what an organisation wants to achieve. TANZ will work with businesses to strategically identify their vision and goals and help them work towards achieving them. Further information.

Aligning education and training with that vision is a key to successful learning outcomes - both for the individual and the organisation.

"When more people come to share a vision, the vision becomes more real in the sense of a mental reality that people can truly imagine achieving." - (Peter Senge)

Collaboration
TANZ is committed to strategic and mutually beneficial collaboration, believing the only way forward is through successful industry/educational partnerships.

TANZ networks mean that it can draw on a vast amount of expertise and experience - in industry, business and education.

By collaborating with stakeholders, TANZ ensures its understanding of their needs during each stage of the design, development and delivery processes. TANZ approach uses the knowledge and expertise of the stakeholders in the training design. Further information.

Learning Organisation
TANZ believes that learning is integral to the success of an organisation, and will work with clients to facilitate the development of a learning culture. By promoting lifelong learning, organisations will create an environment that encourages growth and innovation.

Organisations require technical and specialist skills and increasingly in areas such as team building, leadership, problem solving, and communication skills. Further information.

Return on Investment
TANZ is aware of the importance of a Return on Investment for organisations recognising the importance of evaluating education and training. There is more and more evidence to suggest that education and training provides a return on investment through:

• improvement in staff performance
• improvement in staff retention
• provision of career pathways
• recruitment of staff
• increased customer satisfaction
• increased productivity.

These will be enhanced through training programmes - regardless of the format used - being part of the day-to-day business of an organisation. It is critical that the knowledge transferred is practical and positively integrated into the organisation. Doing so will provide a continuous cycle of learning and growth.

It is vital therefore that training offers flexibility, consistency, relevance and timeliness.

Through its collaborative approach, TANZ works with organisations to produce learning outcomes that will provide maximum return.

"The most successful companies and the most successful countries will be those that that manage human capital in the most effective and efficient fashion, investing in their workers, encouraging workers to invest in themselves, provide a good learning environment, and yes, include social capital as well as skills and training." - (Professor Gary Becker)
Further information.

Knowledge Society
"A society in which creating, sharing and using knowledge are key factors in the prosperity and wellbeing of its people." - (Ministry of Education, Interim Tertiary eLearning Framework)

In today's knowledge society, the organisation with a competitive edge will be that which recognises the knowledge which is of value to the organisation - such as human, customer and structural capital (Knowledgepoint) - along with continuous learning.

Countries who have invested in intellectual capital and who see learning as an ongoing process have seen and will continue to see strong growth.

TANZ believes in working with industry to ensure that the education provided meets the needs of work in the "real world". TANZ aims to assist industry to manage knowledge in a way that will enable them to work more effectively and efficiently.

By continually researching and evaluating the issues surrounding knowledge management, TANZ ensures that organisations gain the maximum benefit possible from their training programmes.

"There is now overwhelming evidence that central to being a producer of knowledge is an ample supply of well trained innovative human capital supported by a leading edge research infrastructure and the capacity to perform basic research" - (Professor Peter Gluckman, Knowledge Wave Conference 2001)

"For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour. Today's most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based." - (World Development Report, 1999) Further information.

Change Management
In an environment of constant change, TANZ recognises that different skills are required to meet the demands of a constantly shifting environment. By working closely with organisations TANZ is able to identify these skills to design, develop and deliver the training that is right for each business.

TANZ believes in continuous improvement and continuous learning that is directly relevant and which engages the learner. TANZ has the expertise to provide the most appropriate learning strategies that will assist in dealing with the challenge of changing markets and increasing technological change - allowing businesses to be competitive, innovative and efficient.

"The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades." - (John P. Kotter)

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." - (Peter Drucker) Further information.

Workplace Learning
In an environment where change is often the only constant factor, the need for staff at all levels to continually upskill and develop, means that there is an increasing focus on learning that takes place in the workplace.

It is therefore important that organisations foster a learning culture, where learning in the workplace is valued as any other part of a job would be valued, where it is supported, and where there are opportunities for learners to discuss what they have learned with other learners in their "community".

"Effective workplace learning should provide enterprises with the capacity to innovate" - (Figgis et al 2001)

TANZ is rapidly becoming acknowledged as a leader in the field of workplace learning. This is achieved through various applications and practical research projects. It is recognised that it is the focus on "learning" rather than "teaching" that will yield the best results.

TANZ has undertaken research into the support structure that needs to be established to optimise the learning outcomes in a workplace setting.

"Today, opportunities and threats are often first identified as they recede in the rear-view mirror. By the time we have created a learning strategy or simply a training course to address an issue, it's no longer important or its context has altered. By the time we have configured our resources to exploit an opportunity, it's gone. ... Individual employees and entire companies need to be better able to anticipate, generate, or react to change. This means making them (and the processes that support them) smarter, faster, more flexible, more collaborative, and more synergistic. Identifying and building the analytical thinking, communication, and decision-making skills of individuals at all levels, as well as in teams and business units, is becoming more vital than ever." - www.trainingzone.co.uk (Godrey Parkin)