Business Profiles
Profile: Karen Roem: Roem.co.uk
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November 8, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
The Fresh Outlook spoke to Karen Roem about her company and why women should always listen to Eleanor Roosevelt.
When we asked Karen Roem to tell us one major thing a woman who is building a career should know, she said: “Believe in yourself and anything is possible,” asking: “Am I allowed a second one? Do one thing every day that scares you,” she added, before admitting that she had “pinched” it from Eleanor Roosevelt.
Karen, who manages her own software training and support company, spoke to The Fresh Outlook (TFO) about her life as a Dutch business woman in England.
Karen is “somebody who knows what she wants and once she sets her mind on doing something, she makes sure she succeeds,” or at least that’s what her best friend would probably say about her. It seems as if this description is highly accurate, too.
Founding Roem Limited in 2001, Karen decided that her own business was going to be different:
“I decided that the company’s core values and actions would be to bring innovation and imagination into an area that can often be perceived as dry. Traditional training can be very linear, with instructors ordering you to ‘click here’. Students learn via repetition, being shown examples to apply what they learn, but not necessarily how to apply it to their own individual circumstances.”
Importing a revolutionary method from the US which is more applicable to students and their different learning styles, Karen brought the hands off teaching and learning experience to ensure higher levels of competency. “The result is an enjoyable experience that focuses on how participants can apply what they are learning to their own particular circumstances,” she said.
Karen brought her revolutionary idea into the marketplace by offering a wide range of services from standard ‘off the shelf’ training to ‘hands-off’ seminars, bespoke training, virtual training, computer-based training simulations, computer coaching programme, self-study and IT clinics.
“None of my main competitors in the marketplace – regionally nor nationally – were offering the unusual hands off approach to IT training. As time went on others were also introducing the approach and I realised it was important to both myself, my company as well as my customers that we offer a variety of traditional and non-traditional teaching, which allows for the fact that not everyone learns well in a traditional classroom environment,” Karen said.
Karen, who loves a good challenge, said that if she could have a superpower she would love to have “the ability to make bosses realise that businesses must continue to train people, despite the recession; invest in employees and help them to build their skills so that they will be better placed to compete in the future”.
Moreover, she also gave three recession-beating training tips: keep it local, as there are plenty of training courses in your local town and opt for half-day courses to cherry-pick topics so people can exactly what they need to learn rather than sitting through standard full-day course.
Do you want to learn more about Karen’s software training and support company? Please visit her website at www.roem.co.uk .
By Rosaria Sgueglia
[Image courtesy of Karen Roem]
