90 Years of Training Experience: Why Experience Still Matters

90+ years.

That's the combined training experience the three of us at Target Training Associates bring to the table.

It sounds impressive.

But here's the thing.

We don't believe you should choose us simply because we've been doing this for a long time.

Years alone don't guarantee quality.

You can do something badly for 30 years.

You can also meet somebody relatively new to training who is absolutely brilliant.

So when we talk about our 90+ years of experience, the number isn't really the story.

The story is what happened during those years.

The learners we've worked with.

The mistakes we've made.

The difficult situations we've encountered.

The methods we've changed.

The thousands of conversations we've had.

The things we've learned about people.

And the ability all of that gives us to walk into a training room knowing that whatever happens next, there's a pretty good chance we've experienced something similar before.

Experience isn't measured by how many years you've trained.

It's measured by what those years have taught you.

Experienced trainer adapting a workplace learning session when the original plan needs to change.

Key Takeaways From This Blog

• Why years alone don't make somebody an experienced trainer
• How genuine experience develops judgement and adaptability
• Why mistakes are an important part of becoming a better trainer
• What organisations really gain when they bring deeply experienced trainers into the room

You Can't Download Experience

There is more information available to trainers today than ever before.

Want to learn about questioning techniques?

Search for them.

Want some new training activities?

AI can generate twenty before you've finished your coffee.

Want to understand a learning model?

There will be an article, video, podcast or course explaining it.

That's fantastic.

We should embrace it.

But there is one thing technology cannot instantly give you.

Experience.

You cannot download the feeling of noticing that you've started losing a room.

You cannot read one article and suddenly know when a nervous learner needs encouragement rather than another explanation.

You cannot ask AI to give you the instinct that tells you an activity isn't working and you need to change direction.

You develop those things by doing the job.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Experience Gives You Options

This, for me, is one of the biggest differences experience makes.

When you're new to training, you often have a plan.

And that plan can feel incredibly important.

Slide 12.

Activity.

Debrief.

Break.

Slide 18.

Discussion.

Lunch.

Then something happens.

The discussion takes twice as long as expected.

A learner asks a brilliant question you hadn't anticipated.

Someone doesn't understand something.

Technology fails.

The activity you were convinced would be brilliant falls completely flat.

Now what?

When you have limited experience, it can feel as though the session is going wrong.

When you've been there many times before, you see something different.

Options.

You can change the activity.

Ask another question.

Use a different example.

Pair people up.

Move something until later.

Drop something completely.

Spend longer where the learning is happening.

That's why experience shouldn't make trainers more rigid.

It should make them more adaptable.

The Plan Is Important. The Learner Is More Important.

Our military instructional backgrounds taught us the importance of preparation.

We still believe in that completely.

Prepare properly.

Know your subject.

Understand the outcome.

Think through the session.

Anticipate problems.

But decades of training people have taught us something else.

Preparation gives you the confidence to change the plan.

That might sound contradictory.

It isn't.

If you understand what you're trying to achieve, you don't have to cling desperately to the route you originally planned to take.

There may be another way of getting there.

And sometimes that other route will be far better for the people sitting in front of you.

That's the difference between following a lesson plan and facilitating learning.

Experience Teaches You to Read the Room

This phrase gets used a lot.

"Read the room."

But what does it actually mean?

It means noticing.

The person who has suddenly stopped contributing.

The confused expression after your explanation.

The learner who clearly understands and needs more challenge.

The person desperate to ask something but reluctant to speak.

The energy disappearing from the room.

The discussion that's suddenly creating far more learning than the activity you had planned next.

None of these things appear on your PowerPoint.

Great trainers learn to notice them.

Then comes the important bit.

They do something about them.

Experience helps you recognise those moments earlier and gives you more ways to respond.

Experience Also Means Getting Things Wrong

This might be my favourite part of the conversation.

Because 90+ years of training experience certainly doesn't mean 90+ years of getting everything right.

We've made mistakes.

Of course we have.

Activities that didn't work.

Explanations that confused rather than clarified.

Timings that went completely out of the window.

Questions we could have asked better.

Moments where, looking back, we should have listened more and spoken less.

That's part of becoming experienced.

The important question isn't:

"Have you ever got training wrong?"

It's:

"What did you learn when you did?"

The trainers who continually reflect on their own performance become better because of those moments.

The trainers who assume experience means they have nothing left to learn eventually stop developing.

And that's where experience can become dangerous.

90+ Years of Experience Doesn't Mean 90+ Years of Doing the Same Thing

This is particularly important to us.

Our instructional foundations came from the military.

We're incredibly proud of that.

But between us we also bring more than 40 years of combined experience working in the business world.

During that time, workplaces have changed enormously.

Technology has changed.

Communication has changed.

Learning has changed.

Expectations have changed.

And the people walking into training rooms have changed too.

So have we.

That's important.

Because imagine boasting about 30 years of experience while delivering exactly the same training you delivered 30 years ago.

That's not the kind of experience we're interested in.

Experience should create evolution.

We take the strongest lessons from our instructional backgrounds and combine them with decades of learning from modern organisations, workplaces and people.

Military grounded.

Business proven.

Learner focused.

What Does All of This Mean for the Customer?

This is where 90+ years stops being a statistic.

Because customers aren't buying our history.

They're buying what that history allows us to do today.

They're getting trainers who can prepare thoroughly without becoming slaves to the plan.

Trainers who can challenge people without destroying confidence.

Trainers who can recognise when somebody needs help.

Trainers who can deal with unexpected questions.

Trainers who can change direction.

Trainers who know that one approach will never work for every learner.

And trainers who have learned that the quality of the experience matters far more than demonstrating how much the trainer knows.

That's also why experience matters when you're learning to deliver training yourself.

You're not simply learning a collection of techniques.

You're learning how to make decisions about people.

And when we develop trainers on our train the trainer courses, we can draw on decades of those decisions to help them understand not just what to do, but why, when and sometimes when not to do it at all.

The Difference Between Knowledge and Judgement

Imagine two trainers both know ten different training techniques.

On paper, their knowledge could be identical.

But one of them knows which technique to use with this group, at this moment, for this particular outcome.

That's different.

That's judgement.

And judgement is difficult to reduce to a slide.

It develops through knowledge plus experience plus reflection.

Perhaps that's ultimately what organisations gain when they bring experienced trainers in.

Not simply more knowledge.

Better judgement about how to use it.

Does Experience Still Matter in the Age of AI?

I'd argue it matters more.

AI gives us extraordinary access to information and ideas.

We use it.

We embrace it.

It can help trainers design, research, brainstorm, simplify and create.

But having more information available doesn't remove the need for judgement.

It increases it.

Someone still has to decide:

Is this appropriate?

Will this work with these learners?

Does this make sense in this organisation?

Should I use this?

Should I adapt it?

Should I ignore it completely?

Technology can give us more options.

Experience helps us choose between them.

And that is why the future of training isn't experienced trainers or new technology.

It's experienced trainers who know how to use new technology intelligently.

FAQs

Why is trainer experience important?

Experience can give trainers a wider range of situations, methods and lessons to draw upon. When combined with reflection and continued development, it helps trainers make better decisions and adapt to different learners.

Does having more years of experience automatically make someone a better trainer?

No. Time alone isn't enough. Valuable experience comes from practising, reflecting, learning, adapting and continuing to develop.

Why is adaptability important for trainers?

No two groups of learners are identical. Trainers need to respond to different levels of knowledge, confidence, engagement and understanding rather than rigidly following the same approach every time.

How does Target's military training experience translate into business training?

Our military backgrounds gave us strong instructional foundations, while more than 40 years of combined experience in the business world has allowed us to continually adapt those foundations to modern organisations and workplace learners.

Target Takeaway

We're proud to say we have more than 90 years of combined training experience.

But perhaps we should never leave that statement there.

Because the impressive part isn't the number.

It's the learning contained inside it.

Thousands of learners.

Thousands of questions.

Thousands of decisions.

Plenty of successes.

A fair few mistakes.

And decades spent adapting what we do as the world around us changes.

That's what experience should be.

Not:

"I've done this for years, therefore I know best."

But:

"I've done this for years, therefore I've learned how much there still is to learn."

Experience doesn't give you one answer.

It gives you more options.

And great trainers develop the judgement to know which one their learners need.

One Last Thought...

Imagine two trainers facing exactly the same unexpected problem.

One thinks:

"This isn't in my plan."

The other thinks:

"I've got another way."

That might be one of the simplest ways to explain what experience brings to a training room.

Not certainty.

Options.

And the judgement to choose between them.