Training courses are often met with the same reactions, death by PowerPoint, going nowhere, dragging things out, trainer going on and on, bad coffee and stale biscuits (okay maybe not the last one). But they don’t always have to be like that. As a person of a certain age, I have certainly sat through my fair share of training experiences, and I have also delivered a few courses in my life as well. Here are the top three things I do to make sure when you come and train with Compass Assurance, you leave feeling energised and refreshed, and ready to apply what you learnt back in your work place.
Tip 1: Content with meaning.
Every slide, activity, and piece of information needs to have a purpose. I will often explicitly state that we are doing this activity because……. and I will provide a really good reason. This type of structure gives you a bit of assurance that I am not just trying to fill in time to make you think you have value for money.
Tip 2: Give the course a road map.
We all like to know where we are going, what to expect, what we will see along the way. I always start with an overview. Here is what we are going to do, this is how we are doing it, and then I revisit the planned pathway as we go along the way to make sure I didn’t lead you off track into some sort of Informa
Tip 3: Take breaks and finish on time.
Super important. Adult course participants may be out of practice listening to someone’s voice for long periods of time. We all have work related distraction hanging over us, and its hard to leave it at the door. I always make time for coffee breaks to allow my participants to get to that nagging email/phone call so they can focus during the session. By the same token, my courses always finish on time. There is a very good reason the school day is only 6 hours for kids, it actually becomes hard to process information if you are sitting any longer than that, and in an adult course, you generally don’t get the opportunity to refresh by kicking the footy at lunch time. Keeping to time also ensures information is presented efficiently, it puts a bit of pressure on the trainer to make sure you get what you need to out of the course in the time allocated. Plus, you get to beat the traffic.
About the Author:
Katherine Lindsay is a qualified Chemical Engineer and later did a Bachelor of Teaching. Katherine started her training experience as a junior engineering officer teaching explosive chemistry to other engineers and senior non-commissioned Armament officers in the RAAF. Her experience keeping people engaged stems largely from her time teaching maths to teenagers (sometimes not the most captivated audience) in Victorian High Schools; and has also attended her fair share of adult courses where the struggle to stay awake is real, which is why she has vowed to never train like that.
