A Little TAP History
In 1986 when Denny's contract with Peace Corps was over, we decided to stay in Thailand to start our own training company--a company that would specialize in participatory training and build on our team's language-training and development-project expertise. We set up a board of five partners, among them Nisa, Kanchena and Napasak (Yai) and called it Training Associates, Company Limited (TA). Denny and Nisa headed the training arm and I-until I got a job with TDRI--I managed the administrative end. When I left, Yai took over. Actually, Phyllis Ressler did TA's first brochure!
One challenge we faced in Thailand was, given the participatory nature of our company's mission, how to train people to give and receive feedback, a cultural anathema, and how to market, when it is not appropriate to blow one's own horn. Well, we did struggle with those issues, but managed to stay in business and do good work until we left for Manila on January 1, 1990! Looking back almost twenty years , we can say with pride that TA did as much to bring participatory training approaches to Thailand as it did to build Denny's international reputation. All in all, we calculate that we trained approximately one thousand (1000) trainers, including at least 40% in ZOPP project strategic management facilitation skills-thanks to our relationship with GTZ..
We can also say with pride that Training Associates Company Ltd, TA, created training capacity in development organizations, personnel offices and hotels around the country, where many of our former employees and partners (Nisa, Prakeet, Preeya, Dhone, Amphon, Tit, Yeesoon, Galeeyanee) now work. A bunch of them got together with Denny when he was in Thailand in December of 2003. (See the webpage with an anecdotes from theTA archives )
One challenge we faced in Thailand was, given the participatory nature of our company's mission, how to train people to give and receive feedback, a cultural anathema, and how to market, when it is not appropriate to blow one's own horn. Well, we did struggle with those issues, but managed to stay in business and do good work until we left for Manila on January 1, 1990! Looking back almost twenty years , we can say with pride that TA did as much to bring participatory training approaches to Thailand as it did to build Denny's international reputation. All in all, we calculate that we trained approximately one thousand (1000) trainers, including at least 40% in ZOPP project strategic management facilitation skills-thanks to our relationship with GTZ..
We can also say with pride that Training Associates Company Ltd, TA, created training capacity in development organizations, personnel offices and hotels around the country, where many of our former employees and partners (Nisa, Prakeet, Preeya, Dhone, Amphon, Tit, Yeesoon, Galeeyanee) now work. A bunch of them got together with Denny when he was in Thailand in December of 2003. (See the webpage with an anecdotes from theTA archives )
The name TAP, however, stems from the next Asian chapter of our careers-the Philippines, where I started an NGO with two Filipino trainers called Training Associates Philippines-TAP. At its peak, TAP had 19 Associates from six countries-Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, and the US.
Denny and I liked the name TAP so much that when we decided to start our business again in the States we called it Training Associates Pacific, because we had settled in the Pacific Northwest-and we liked TAP's peaceful connotation.
Denny and I liked the name TAP so much that when we decided to start our business again in the States we called it Training Associates Pacific, because we had settled in the Pacific Northwest-and we liked TAP's peaceful connotation.
