courses, courses, courses...

It seems that managers have followed a course which told them that it's vital that all employees follow a course. At least, my manager probably did.

The effect is that I have now a list of targets for this year:

"Follow courses" is one of the targets. We even identified a few topics, which was very helpful if they were common topics of courses, which I think they are not.

After that nothing else was said on the topic of courses. I have to find the courses that match the description that's written in the planning-form. I have found out that finding a course is actually not very easy. Our P&O department does not assist (they'll give you a name of an institute, which then lists 1000 courses).

Does anyone have some practical tips how to select a course without actually having to read a million course descriptions? I'm not ready to spend more time on course-selection than on the course itself... but I also want to follow the right course, and not just any course. The name of the course does give a hint, but it's important to check the contents (the level can be too high/low, the topic just a bit different, the duration can be too long, and in my case I'd like to have the course in my own country - all these criteria make it even harder to find a course).

To other working people: How do you select courses that you have to follow? Are you just told by your boss when and where to go? Or do you have to take a lot of initiative yourself, like me?

Thanks in advance for any practical tips.