The trainer and the training cycleالمدرب ودورة التدريب

Welcome to Training of Trainers

Every organisation has people who know their job very well. Very few of them have been taught how to pass that knowledge on. This course turns subject experts into trainers who can plan, deliver and evaluate training that really changes how people work.

Ishtar Online Academy explainer.

Across eight lessons you will follow Eng. Mariam, a senior maintenance engineer at Hammurabi Petroleum Services in Basra, who has just been asked to become one of the company's internal trainers.

The case: why the courses were not working

Hammurabi Petroleum Services runs about forty internal courses a year: safety refreshers, equipment training and supervisor skills. The training manager, Mr. Faris, reviewed last year's evaluation forms. The average rating was low, fewer than six in ten people passed the practical checks, and supervisors said that most people went back to their old habits within weeks.

The trainers were all experts. The problem was not their knowledge but the way it was passed on. Mr. Faris asked Mariam, and five other engineers and supervisors, to join a trainer programme mentored by Dr. Lamia, the company's senior learning specialist.

What training is, and what it is not

Training is a planned process that helps people gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to do a specific job to a required standard. It is judged by one thing: whether people perform better afterwards.

The training cycle

This sequence is often called ADDIE (Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate). Most poor courses skip the first two stages: someone starts by making slides.

The six roles of a trainer

In a small company one person often plays all six roles. Mariam had only ever played one of them: the presenter. Dr. Lamia's first message to the group was simple: "Your job is not to talk. Your job is to make sure they can do it when they leave."

Trainer competencies

Professional bodies describe trainer competence in similar ways. A competent trainer can:

• Know the subject well enough to answer "why", not only "how", and keep it up to date.
• Understand how adults learn and design for it (lesson 2).
• Analyse needs and write objectives that can be measured (lesson 3).
• Design sessions and materials that someone else could deliver (lesson 4).
• Choose and run methods: demonstrations, discussions, case studies, role-plays (lesson 5).
• Facilitate groups, ask good questions and handle difficult situations (lesson 6).
• Deliver clearly in a classroom, on site and online (lesson 7).
• Assess, evaluate and act ethically (lesson 8).

Know your starting point

Mariam rated herself on the six areas; Dr. Lamia rated her after watching one of her old sessions. Mariam was strongest at presentation, and both agreed she was weakest at writing objectives and assessment. Notice that the mentor's ratings were lower: most new trainers overrate themselves until someone observes them.

Quality standards for training

Clients and regulators increasingly ask training providers to show how they control quality. The international standard ISO 29993 sets requirements for learning services outside formal education, such as company and vocational training. In practice it expects a provider to:

• Identify learning needs before designing a service, and state its objectives clearly.
• Give learners clear information before they enrol: content, method, duration, assessment and cost.
• Use trainers who are competent in the subject and in training, and keep their competence up to date.
• Assess learning fairly and keep accurate records.
• Collect feedback, evaluate results and improve the service.

Lesson summary