There is a guy currently working for me who has considerable talent in the IT field, Access, Excel, VBA, Crystal, etc.

I am looking for a company who provide correspondence courses that cover further disciplines such as SQL, .ASP etc.

The intention is that we pay for the courses, our commitment, and he then undertakes these in his own and some of our time, his commitment. Upon successful completion then he would be rewarded with a payrise.

I am really looking for some sort of accreditation so that in the future whatever qualifications he gains would be recognised by other people out there, not that i want to lose him but it needs to be something worthwhile from his perspective too.

Any ideas?

There are courses out there (although I'm noy so sure SQL is in demand these days).
Regretably I dont know where to go for them however good places to start enquiries are....

http://www.iitt.org.uk/
www.socitm.gov.uk/

not forgetting of course http://www.computerweekly.com/Home/Default.aspx

Its a start anyway. ;-)

Did google for courses but wondered if anyone had any good or bad experiences?

although I'm noy so sure SQL is in demand these days

Erm...

although I'm noy so sure SQL is in demand these days

I think this may be right, I have seen a number of HR departments saying they needed Sequel skills

Hi,

SQL is still very prevalent in most SME businesses these days. It is certainly a skill that is valuable to both the company and the candidate. Apart from the more major organisations that can afford and have a need for the likes of Oracle, SQL tends to sit nicely in most infrastructures.

I'd add .NET skills will also become very important in almost all IT/Developer departments as applications share more common source code and cross-platform compatibility.

I'd be interested to hear if you have him/her sign a new contract to stay with the company for x amount of time after training to discourage having training paid for then leaving right after to a higher paid job that needs the new skill.

Gary.

I think you're on sticky ground trying to constructively negotiate a contract - employee development usually forms part of their existing contract so its somewhat illegal to force them to sign a new one for doing something they are already contractually obliged to do - learn.

The more prevalent trend is to use a clawback contract to recoup training costs having said that its a very controversial subject in HR and training.

William, have you tried any local colleges or universities. They may be able to offer courses to suit requirments