Here's where the Adelphi Associates train the trainer course took place - a pub/hotel/conference facility in the village of Deddington near Banbury. The course was VERY useful. Where to start.
Well, I'm not going to get into every detail, but rather highlight the learning points for me. Overall the course provided me with a good insight into how people learn. Rather than focussing on the style of the trainer, the course provided models to help me understand the types of learners there might be in a group and how to engage them.
The course covered: Preparing for your course, designing and delivering your course, managing interaction on the course and ending the course.
We started off by looking at Bloom's taxonomy - a useful tool for setting training objectives. The taxonomy looks at the delegate's knowledge, attitude and skills and categorises these into levels in order that the trainer can set objectives.
The taxonomy is very useful for providing ways of describing the types of activites to be used in training and how they can be measured - which is key to setting training objectives.
And these objectives should always be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time.
It sounds obvious, but without clear goals any training is doomed to fail. And those goals must directly link to business goals. Trainers must be clear on what the business is trying to achieve and how training can help deliver that.
BUT that means clarity from the business on what is required, why, when etc. If a trainer does not get these answers then they must push until they do. Otherwise, they will not be able to convince deleagtes of why the training is relevant.