Quite a tall order isn’t it?  How can you expect a task to get done if you don’t have the capability or resources to do it?  This is happening all the time with training, and it’s wasting valuable time and money that businesses can’t afford to lose.

Ball in the basket - a relatively straightforward task really when we have all the three essential elements; the person, the ball and the basket and we could say that there is a good chance of completing the task?  In training, it’s like when we task our “Trainers” who may not have the skills or knowledge to come up with the training that’s required to make the changes we need in the workplace.  OK, they may be able to produce some training (mostly PowerPoint slide orientated) that fulfills a small piece of what’s needed, but did they truly understand what the real “training need” was?  We often find that many of our delegates on our PTT Train the Trainer course have been given training jobs and tasks but don’t understand how to do the job correctly.  If we don’t understand how to match the training needs with the right way to train, including assessment and assurance, how do we know that learning is taking place and what we deliver is fit for purpose to make the changes in the workplace?  To equip Trainers correctly, <to get the ball to the basket every time> they should know how to do the following:

Use a Systems Approach to Training – Identifying all the individual areas required for successful practice with a cycle that incorporates Continuous Improvement.

Identify the Training Needs & Plan – Finding the overall training needs and then identifying the individual and Organisational needs within this.

Identify the Training Resources – The resources you will need to deliver successful training like a Syllabus, Handouts, Lesson Plans, etc. that include Key Learning Points that meet the overall needs.

Select the Right Delivery Methods – How to evaluate the best option to deliver the training most efficiently.

Carry out an Assessment – How to design assessment activities that will indicate clearly if the training is working.

Evaluate & Assure – How to ensure that the training is working at the point of delivery and further down the line in the actual workplace and then providing the feedback and results are fed back into the training design phase.

Does your training incorporate these?  If not, then that valuable time and money you can’t afford to lose is most likely happening now.  Our Course Design course is now available remotely and covers all of the above; we are running this on 20th & 21st October.  Contact us for further details.

Scott Fraser is a Master Trainer at Target Training and delivers our PTT Train the Trainer courses and our Advanced PTT Train the Trainer courses.  You can read more about him here.