Fire Services staff received training on the Almena Method (seated left to right). Gilbert Rankin, Acting Senior Divisional Officer, David Stock from Cayman Islands Court Services College, (standing) Almena King, founder of the Almena Method, Dennom Bodden, Chief Fire Officer, (seated) Steve Webster, Deputy Chief Aerodrome, Ernest Barnes, Sub Officer, Brevon Elliott, Lead Fire Officer and Shana Ebanks, Human Resources Assistant.

Computers are used by thousands of people each day in the Cayman Islands, yet most people are unable to utilize their full capabilities on computers, because they have not been taught keyboarding skills necessary to enter data and text efficiently.

Recently introduced to the Cayman Islands is an online method to teach the mastery of keyboarding skills, called ‘The Almena Method’.

The developer, Almena King, is an award-winning educator and was nominated by the American Association of Training and Development as an outstanding contributor in the field of education and training, theory and practice. As a young teacher, Ms King had to find and easy and better way to teach her students typing skills, so out of desperation and need, she created her own method. That was over 30 years ago. Little did she know that the world would be plunged into the technology age and that typing would become a very necessary ‘life skill’.

The Almena method teaches all 26 letters on the keyboard in one 20-minute lesson, using what she describes as proven successful techniques on how to reduce errors and increase typing speeds to 80 wpm (words per minute) in record time.

The Almena method promises to increase productivity as persons can move from typing 20 words per minute to 60 or 80 words per minute in a matter of weeks, through guided practice.

An introductory workshop was conducted for the fire department by David Stock, Manager of Leadership Learning, and Civil Service College Cayman Islands.

Another introductory workshop was held at the University of the West Indies, (UWI), Open Campus with five students. One student started out at 3 words per minute and after three hours was up to 30 words per minute.

Ms King has combined memory techniques, music and motivational passages to create a masterpiece of intellectual property, now available through online software purchase arrangement for single users or site licenses for companies and educational institutions.

As a life long educator, Ms King has spent the last seven years developing and perfecting the online version, and today, with the click of a button she can send the Almena method all around the world.

The Cayman Islands is one of the first countries to start using the online Almena method software.

Ms King has received a commendation from the former Mayor of Los Angeles, Mr Tom Bradley who praised The Almena method for its simplicity and effectiveness and for providing marketable job skills for the unemployed.