Regular training courses were an integral part of working life at the bank and Malcolm received his fair share. Like many of his colleagues, he regarded these as a few relaxing days off work with food and lodging provided.

The B20 Advanced administration course was generally straightforward but proved to be technically difficult in parts. The software was written in hexadecimal reversed couplets and part of the course was to locate and fix errors. Only one person was able to do that and luckily the lecturer did not persue the matter with those who could not.

The System Management was quite technical and partly outside Malcolm's remit but, nonetheless, it gave him a useful insight into the workings of the banks systems on which he worked.

Virtually the entire staff of Midland Bank attended the Customer Care course. It was held at differing locations around the country and groups of about one hundred attended each one. It was actually quite a social event as old friends would meet. Malcolm's course was held in the most uncelubrious surroundings of the South Mimms motorway service station on the M25. The presentation was like an overacted theatre performance and Malcolm took an instant dislike to it.

The VMS Networking course was held over two days in the Liberal Club in the West End of London. After the first day lectures, Malcolm and three colleagues were walking back through the West End when he remembered that there was a pub that sold his favourite Ringwood Bitter beer. They found it and imbibed consequently they were quite merry by the time they found an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was the same restaurant that Malcolm and his wife had taken their Dutch friends and where they gad offended the proprietor by going through the menu a second time as they were still hungry.

The management and Communications course held in Chesterfield was fun as it mostly involved role-play. It started with each person giving a ten minute talk on their hobby. Malcolm made the point that hobbies were his hobby and detailed them. The lecturer criticised him as having just given a list of what he did and not going into detail. Attendees also had to conduct interviews and assess the candidates suitability for a job. Malcolm's first was a man who had a short temper. The second was a man who was devoted to his pet chameleon which was active at night and he wanted to be with it. He had found that story in a magazine at the training centre. Luckily Malcolm had also been reading the subject in a magazine and was able to react to the problems that arose and point out that it had to be the job or the chameleon.

The Winning Team course also involved role-play. An example was in engagement whereby Malcolm had to talk to two people for ten minutes. One person would be attentive and the other disinterested and Malcolm had to try to engage both equally. He spoke about his love of cycling. He knew the technique to engage and afterwards the person playing disinterested party said that it was hard as he found the conversation interesting. Another exercise was that Malcolm was a disgruntled customer who had got wound up by the bank sending unnecessary leaflets to him in the post and he was ringing to complain. His phone would keep cutting out so the recipient had to decipher the problem. Someone asked Malcolm if he had been an actor as it was rather realistic. Some months later, Malcolm visited the office in Hull to be greeted by the member of staff that had been on the receiving end of Malcolm's call and said "it's that nasty little man on the 'phone".