Tracey Dowcra, Learning and Development Manager at WWP Training Ltd, discusses her approach to training and why setting yourself up to be “the expert” will only end in disaster.

1. Describe your role and responsibilities.
I am the Learning & Development Manager for WWP Training Ltd. I am responsible for recruiting, performance managing a team of 12 IT Trainers (MS Office end user training) and currently one skills training consultant (Management and Employment Law training).

2. How are training priorities set within your organisation?
Driven by sales team and client needs.

3. How closely aligned is training and development to the overall organisational strategy?
We are a learning and development organisation, so it is implicit in everything we do.

4. How does your department keep your organisation one step ahead?
The trainers are all very highly skilled, adaptable and flexible. They have a natural interest in their subject matter and are always looking to improve their own skills and, therefore, enhance our “products”.

5. How does your training department operate?
Mostly delivered using in-house trainers but we do outsource heavily in specialist areas of expertise. We take a flexible approach to delegates’ needs and courses are often tailored. We also get involved in IT project rollouts with clients, providing consultancy for the training phase of projects through to delivery. Some courses are scheduled regularly and others on demand.

6. How do you evaluate training and does this vary according to the learning intervention?
We can provide a raft of evaluation techniques, both “off-the-shelf” or tailored. Of course, we always ask delegates to complete evaluation forms at the end of a course, and all training is followed up by the sales account managers with their clients.

Click on the "read more" button to discover how to improve the credibility of training and development, and why claiming to be an expert at everything is a bad idea.