7 Things to Look Out for Before Selecting Your Next Training Provid...

This is another entry to my Talent Development Series. While Steemit is highly rewarding, I do have two other businesses that funds my lifestyle, and one of them is Plaseed.com. Previously I've done two pieces on:

Today's let's have a look a what you can do to select trainers for your organisation's training needs.

Ever had a bad training experience for you or your people?

Have you walked out of a training session feeling that you’ve just wasted your time?

Or perhaps while the trainer is entertaining, none of the contents he or she covered are useful in your work?

Let’s face it: releasing your employees for training is critical for their growth and upskill, but at the same time, how can you be sure the time, effort and money invested in the training initiatives are worth it. Selecting a training provider can be hit-and-miss, and as a talent development consultant, sometimes I'm tasked to decide on the trainer.

Let me share with you a little check list I've been using so you know what to watch out for before engaging a trainer for your next development session.

#1. Domain Experience

Knowing the trainer’s background - work experience, industry, expertise, management roles - is important because you would want your people to learn from a subject-matter and domain expert. This is to ensure the trainer understands the challenges that the participants go though at work, and their ability to give relevant examples and case studies to add emphasis to the training contents.

Things to look out for during the selection process are:

Use of jargon and technical terms
Examples given to make their case
Name droppings and mentions
Updated knowledge of recent market changes

#2. Customization of Contents

Having domain experience is one thing, but to make it really worth your participant’s time, is whether those case studies, industry-specific examples and technical advice can be included in the training modules.

The truth is, many training providers will just take contents from off-the-shelf program libraries, and often they do not even bother to tweak the contents to match the participant’s level of understanding. Good trainers will go the extra mile to research on your company’s products/services and challenges, and include them as examples during the training. Some would even go the extra mile to cater for different languages.

#3. Training Experience

While domain experience may be critical as it’s reflected in the content of the trainer, training experience will reflect in the engagement of the participants. We have all experienced boring lecturers before, and you certainly don’t want to put your participants through the torture.

That’s where delivery, style, flair, story-telling, humor all come into play. Honestly, human beings are psychologically tuned to prefer entertainment; it has been grounded in us since childhood with the stories we heard, cartoons we watched and games we played. Research has also shown that learners learn best when they are having fun, and that boils down to how experienced the trainer is in merging education and entertainment for a rich training experience.

#4. Training Methodologies

A big component in ensuring a high impact training session lies in how the content is being delivered. No, we’re not just talking about the delivery style mentioned in point #3, but rather the tools, methods and tactics. People respond to different learning styles - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic are just the main senses - and great trainers shift their methodologies every 30-45 minutes to keep participants engaged and interested throughout.

Common delivery methodologies are like simulations, group discussions, round robin, Q&A, dynamic presentations, coaching, individual presentations and more.

Psst! If you want to check out your learning style, you may wanna read this post.

#5. Pre- & Post-Training Components

Training doesn’t just begin or end with the actual session. Good training providers will include pre-training reading materials, videos and even surveys to better prepare the participants and themselves.

The biggest assumption of training is that all participants are operating from the same level of understanding or at the same level of skill set. Having some “homework” before the training will reduce the gap and make the training more effective.

Post-training materials are critical too, and some good trainers will even include post-training follow-up sessions, email and phone support, coaching and more. This is useful because when the participants eventually leave the training room and try to apply what they just learned in their daily work, they are bound to face some difficulties. Having a “life-line” will allow the learners to get in touch with the trainers for more specific advice and recommendations.

#6. Social Media Activities

What happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook.

True, trainers and training providers are humans too, and social media has in many ways become the extension and expression of our lives. We have all heard of horror stories where trainers make the unprofessional mistakes of including sensitive or even offensive topics in their contents. Before engaging a trainer or speaker for your events, it pays to “stalk” their Facebook timeline or even a quick Google of their name.

#7. Accreditations and Certifications

Training providers should be accredited and certified by the right bodies to ensure the quality of their contents and level of professionalism. Most of these accreditations do not come cheap or easy, and the fact that the trainers are certified with them means they are serious about their work and takes pride in their growth.

These are seven key components to look out for before engaging your next training provider. Use them as a checklist or even get your panel to score it as a fair assessment. Of course, as you may have your own criteria as well, add on the the list. All these pre-assessments will ensure that you got the best person for the job.

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7 Things to Look Out for Before Selecting Your Next Training Provider?