I started out my training career in IT, but am now heading down the PRINCE2 route. How many of us here are cross discipline trainers?
Also, what subjects would you all recommend picking up? I'm quite keen on branching out, particularly as good old IT Training seems to be dead as a dodo right now. NLP seems a good route to take, any other ideas?
Paula Jones
3 Responses
Branching out
Paula
This is a hard one to answer. There is a bit of chicken and egg around these types of career direction questions. Should you chose your job focus and then develop your expertise in that area or should you do a bit of browsing before making your choice?
On the former, project management is a good hot area at the moment, as is leadership, innovation, financial management and sustainability (in some sectors). To deliver in these areas you would need good subject knowledge, good process skills (including consultancy skills) and good design and delivery expertise.
If you are browsing, especially with a view to broadening your design and delivery capability, then NLP is worth a look, but I would suggest a short taster before commiting yourself. Ian McDermott at ITS often does evening and one-day programmes for a reasonable price and he is well respected in the field. Even better, try the NLP conference next month – see http://www.nlpconference.co.uk
You might also want to consider Accelerated Learning, Facilitation Skills programmes or maybe a (higher level) training qualification.
With your IT experience, the other option is blended learning design or, stepping on from project management, to Six Sigma, which looks set to grow in the next few years.
Hope that helps. Best of luck!
Graham
Onwards and sideways…
Thank you Graham, that’s a really useful and comprehensive answer. I’ll take a look at your suggestions.
Change of scenery
Hi Paula
I started life training both IT and frontline/presentation skills. Pretty soon IT took over completely – that was at the time when the computer was making its progress from the back office to Joe Average’s desk, and there was little time for anything else.
After the rush had died down (which took about 15 years), I began once again to include things like presentation skills and relationship building into my portfolio.
However, I have since made the move into blended learning design, and I’m loving it! I miss the classroom delivery aspect of things, of course, but I always loved the TNA, scoping, design and development side, which is what I do now and the scope of the projects is huge.