SPARKS has been surfing the Internet for sites that will be of interest to our readers and we came up with some great ones for you.

Seminars

A good seminar can help you to understand a subject much easier than trawling through books. But not everyone has the time or money to travel to venues that could be miles from home. A simple solution is to do a little research online, you'll be surprised how many options you'll find open to you. So the next time you log on, check out the following:

Fluke - www.flukeacademy.shuttlepod.org/UK-seminar
Fluke offer a number of online 'webinars' which last for 60 minutes. You will have to register on the site, but there's no cost involved. They also run free seminars throughout the UK, so it's worth looking to see if there's anything of interest near to you.

CPD

As you progress in your training, you'll often hear the term Continuing Professional Development (CPD). A number of organisations will offer online CPD and quite a bit of this will be free of charge. Normally, CPD certificates are awarded to individuals who complete the task. Employers will often look for evidence of CPD when recruiting staff.

Osram - www.osram-product-training.co.uk
Osram offer nine free online training modules that have been certified as suitable for Continuing Professional Development by the Construction CPD Certification Service. A certificate is issued on successful completion of each module, which takes about 40 minutes to complete.

Resources

The Internet is a great resource in itself, but you do have to be careful – not everything you read will be accurate, unless it is from a recognised authority.

Learning Lounge - www.learninglounge.com
The Learning Lounge is a great resource centre. Training content ranges from video presentations to interactive activities. However, there is a yearly subscription of £39.99 for students. The content covers all aspects of electrical installation including introduction to basic components and terminology to electro-technical theory. Visit the site for more information.

Voltimum - www.voltimum.co.uk
This is another good site that has a technical resource centre that can be freely accessed. It also has links to many other sites and a wealth of information on anything electrical.