Corporate Learning Are you here for the Trainer Development Session?
George Reavis Yes, Good morning from Tulsa, Oklahoma
Rita Mascia Hi, yes I am on line.
Corporate Learning Wow! Welcome!
Corporate Learning I'm Alison. I think we'll wait a few more minutes before beginning, if that's alright
Corporate Learning Hi Dave
Rita Mascia Hi agian, I am on line from the UK, Bedfordshire
Dave Lobban Hi all, I'm in London
Corporate Learning Great, me too. What time is it in Oklahoma?
George Reavis It is 6 am
Corporate Learning Ouch!
Dave Lobban There's dedication
denise mc guirk Hello everyone
Corporate Learning I'll give it two more minutes, hang in there!
Rita Mascia Can you tell me how I get a transcript of this session please?
Corporate Learning Welcome, Ben. I'm Alison.
Ben Hawes Hi.
Corporate Learning Yes, you can come back to this page a few hours after the session and Trainingzone should have published one online.
Corporate Learning Hi Steve.
Corporate Learning I'm Alison
Steve Hi there. we met yesterday. I'm back for a non-facilitator experience today
Corporate Learning Great
Rita Mascia Except Steve and Alison, has any of you done this before with training zone?
George Reavis Yes, I have attended a few sessions some time ago
Ben Hawes Well, I'm just about a novice.
Dave Lobban Nope, hope I can learn something
Corporate Learning A good mix! Everyone ready to begin?
Corporate Learning Welcome to today's session, everyone. As mentioned, my name is Alison. As you know, our topic is getting started in training. We'd like this session to be as flexible as possible, and tailor it to what you want to get from it.
Corporate Learning We thought we might look at the following areas:
Corporate Learning Certifications and Experience
Corporate Learning Secrets and Challenges inside the Classroom
Corporate Learning Trends and Further Development
Corporate Learning Does anyone have anything to add to those?
Rita Mascia Evaluation please
Valerie Russell Emmo sounds good, Alison!
Corporate Learning Alright. I'll try to get something about evaulation in as well.
Corporate Learning Are you all trainers at present?
Dave Lobban Kind of
Karen Parfrey Not now
Rita Mascia yes but not on-line trainers yet
Steve sometimes
Valerie Russell Emmo yes, somewhat
Ben Hawes At times
Corporate Learning Ahh! Semi-trainers, some of yoU!
Ben Hawes Cross-trainers?
Corporate Learning Well, you should all be able to answer this question. What do you think makes a good trainer? Just throw out a couple of ideas . . .
Karen Parfrey Good Communication Skills
Valerie Russell Emmo good listening, draws out learners, knows their material
Rita Mascia stimulates the learner's mind, challenges them, makes them come for more
Steve Understanding of how people learn differently
Ben Hawes Adaptability
Steve related experience helps
Corporate Learning excellent. flexibility seems to be key to a lot of those idea. And yes, listening, stimulation, all of those things.
Corporate Learning Lots of those things are almost personality traits, aren't they. But they become skills with practice and technique.
Corporate Learning A good trainer has to master two areas - content knowledge and delivery skills.
Corporate Learning Agree?
Rita Mascia yes
Steve yes
Ben Hawes Yes, that's a good division
Corporate Learning Great. Now experience plays a part, as does formal training. And certification.
Corporate Learning How valuable do you think certification is in training?
Parvinder Hopefully it will help with gaining employment
Karen Parfrey Somewhat valuable
Rita Mascia important but not crucial if you are very good at what you do
Steve Do you mean valuable to employers or clients or to the trainer?
George Reavis provides cedibility
Lorraine Perry quite useful initially
Valerie Russell Emmo teaches you the ropes?
Ben Hawes Yes, it's a platform to work from
Corporate Learning A variety of opinions. Good point, Rita, it's important, but the skills themselves are most important.
Corporate Learning HOwever, as several of you said, it's a good starting point.
Corporate Learning Our industry needs something from which to measure training skills. A baseline.
Parvinder But if you aren't already in the industry, how can you get a foot in?
Steve Perhaps we cpould think about trainer devt as a process of which certification is a part
Corporate Learning Yes, Steve. Sometimes certicfication can provide that foot in.
Corporate Learning You may be familiar with the IT vendor certifications such as MCT.
Corporate Learning A good start. Certification verifies both your product and your delivery skills knowledge.
Corporate Learning There are many different routes. What certifications have you heard of?
Lisa Evans More and more I see companies wanting certification recognised by leading vendors
Corporate Learning True, Lisa. George, what do you have in the way of certification in Oklahoma?
Rita Mascia that's a grey area for me
Valerie Russell Emmo Institute of Technology and Training - The Online Tutor and The Online Trainer
Steve From my experience people get into training by 2 main routes. Either they are specialists and learn to train others or they start out as generalists and do gener
Corporate Learning Yes, the IITT provide several different certifications in the UK that are recognised by their members.
George Reavis I am not in the training field per se
Corporate Learning Yes, Steve, often people end up in training because they are experts.
Corporate Learning And sometimes that means they are not so keyed up in the delivery skills area. Just as important.
Corporate Learning So how can you, as trainers, improve your delivery skills?
Parvinder You need to know your topic to maintain credibility
Lorraine Perry What about the cert in training practice ?
Steve It seems tho that trainers who have little industry or business knowledge might lack credibility
Parvinder I totally agree
Rita Mascia you need to reflect on your own learning and draw from your experiences to try to understand how people learn
Corporate Learning Definitely, Rita. A good trainer should never forget what it's like to learn.
Steve I have kind of moved on from didactic training skills to think of what I do as more facilitative
Ben Hawes Be prepared to watch other trainers in action every now and again
Corporate Learning Practice is a huge part of successful training. Just because you know the lay out of a course in the manual doesn't mean you can deliver it.
Corporate Learning Good point, Ben, observing colleagues in action.
Parvinder As i come from an educational background, people don't see it as industrial experience.
Rita Mascia reharsing and testing is important as well
Steve One thing I have found useful in reviewing my practice is to do what I call a delivery record
Parvinder And trying to get in is becoming even harder
Corporate Learning What's that, Steve?
Steve This allows reflection after the event and can also be used to capture history of what you do with groups
Lorraine Perry how do you get into training ?
Valerie Russell Emmo if poss, can we get a sense of the trainer certification programmes out there, please?
Steve Sorry
Corporate Learning No worries. Sure Valerie.
Parvinder Corplearn, as a teacher how do i break into industry
Corporate Learning There are several things to do to break into the industry.
Steve the delivery record is a one page hand written record of what is done , what works, what could be improved, filled in as you go
Parvinder I have the teaching skills and the technical know how but still no job offers
Rita Mascia Steve, I would like to know more about your delivery record perhaps separately from this workshop
Corporate Learning Pick the area you want to be delivering in. IT? Soft skills?
Corporate Learning Then you need to focus on the two areas we discussed. Learning your content and learning your delivery skills.
Steve I have been certificated by industry trainer organistions and by branded providers eg Wm Bridges
Corporate Learning Great, so you know what you are looking at Lorraine.
Corporate Learning Often a good way to start is to find a position as an inhouse trainer. They will train you on the content.
Corporate Learning Something you can take care of on your own is learning the delivery skills as they are the same no matter what you train.
Parvinder CL, ok so we know our content and we know our delivery skills, but who can we contact?
Lorraine Perry how do you convince employers that your industial experience is applicable?
Corporate Learning Consider Train-the-trainer courses to give you learner-focused training skills.
Parvinder are we talking training companies, or do we just send in our CV's
Lisa Evans Consider getting certifications that are vendor 'friendly' i.e. recognised by many leading vendors, CTT+ is one that certifies your competencies in delivery skills
Steve Rita Ill email you something
Parvinder or wait for an advert to appear in the newspapers
Rita Mascia thanks steve
Corporate Learning Training companies or corporates. Both are good places to get your grounding. Its hard to start freelance training with no experience.
Corporate Learning Watch publications like Trainingzone
Parvinder Do you know of any companies that are looking now or for the very near future?
Lorraine Perry industrial experience or training experience?
Corporate Learning or Personnel Today. Newletters like UKHRD. If you would like to email me after this session, i would be happy to send you a list.
Parvinder Excellent, thankyou
Corporate Learning No problem. Same for everyone. I can email you all the resources I have as starting points.
Rita Mascia how do we know your e-mail Alison?
Corporate Learning jot this down! [email protected]
Parvinder Trying to break in to the industry after teaching for 3 years in a school in near impossible
Rita Mascia thanks
Corporate Learning Why are you finding it hard, Parvinder?
Parvinder I've sent loads of CV's out but still no replies
Steve Sorry guys have to go. Nice to chat with you
Corporate Learning Thanks Steve. see you next time.
Parvinder 1 Job i sent out for, i could've done the job standing on my head but still waiting
Corporate Learning Valerie, I can also email you some of the certification schemes I know.
Parvinder It was teaching MS Office and its components
Valerie Russell Emmo That would be v helpful, thank you!
Lisa Evans Get together a strong CV outlining your skills and strengths and outline the Certifications you have, a good cover letter and shoot it off to as many Trg C/o's as possible - start with the ones who have accreditation e.g. Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centres - look them up on the UK MS website
Parvinder I was advised that today also
Corporate Learning Yes. Thanks Lisa. Lisa also works with Corporate Learning!
Corporate Learning If you are having no luck, ask the companies why.
Parvinder OK, but they'll get fed up of me
Ben Hawes It's definitely worthwhile, stops you guessing!
Corporate Learning We've touched on certification and starting. Would anyone like to discuss issues inside the classromm?
Lorraine Perry How do you start off as an associate ?
Corporate Learning Sorry, Lorraine, what kind of associate?
Lorraine Perry training assocaite to a training comapany
Valerie Russell Emmo I am a consultancy associate, wanting to explore adding training to my skill set -- just the opposite to you, Lorraine?
Lisa Evans When looking to break into commercial training - and working for a training company, also probe them on what help they will give you on continuing your professional development - gaining experience and enabling you to achieve certifications? - Training isn't about doing 5 day training weeks, day in day out - you'll burn out quickly, develop your skills in e.g. consultancy too!
Vicky Could you tell me how I could become an IT trainer. I have no training in IT or in education. Is there a particular course i should do?
Corporate Learning You can start with training courses that give you the delivery skills. There are different routes - CIPD, Institute of IT training, or us at corporate Learning ;-)
Lisa Evans Vicky - you need to build product knowledge and develop your delivery skills - aim to get yourself certified in these 2 areas, then approach training organisations
Corporate Learning If you are intersted in delivering applications training, you will need to be trained in the applications.
Corporate Learning Contact Training companies that will offer these more technical courses.
Corporate Learning You can work towards a certification like MOUS MI (Microsoft Office User Specialist Master Instructore)
Valerie Russell Emmo what about learning to be a soft skills trainer, ie.not IT?
Corporate Learning Similar route, Valerie. Start by training yourself in delivery skills. Once you have that, you can learn the content knowledge quite easily.
Vicky Can you explain soft skills?
Corporate Learning The CIPD - Chartered Institute in Personnel and Development
Corporate Learning sorry - may be able to help you there.
Corporate Learning Soft Skills refers to non-technical training - communication skills, management training, etc.
Ben Hawes Much more difficult to quantify
Valerie Russell Emmo you mentioned routes for learning the delivery skills, including Corp Learning. How does that work?
Corporate Learning Definitely, Ben.
Lorraine Perry Is there as big a market for soft skills as IT?
Corporate Learning Well, you can attend a trainer development course that gives you the skills for training, Valerie.
Corporate Learning Not just presentation skills, but questioning skills, monitoring learner progress, managing difficult learners . . .
Corporate Learning Bye vicky!
Valerie Russell Emmo market size for both is enormous, I'd say. Different slant when marketing yourself.
Parvinder Is there as big a market for soft skills in IT?
Corporate Learning We offer a two day course, and there are MANY more course out there that do similar things. Drop me an email if you'd lke more info, Valerie.
Ben Hawes More listening and adaptability are needed in soft skills, but then the skills are also more adaptable.
Corporate Learning Lisa, do you have a sense of how big the soft skills market is? Ben?
Valerie Russell Emmo will do, Alison, this has been v helpful, and good luck everyone!
Corporate Learning thanks, Valerie.
Ben Hawes I think it's growing, as it becomes a much more required area for management in general.
Lisa Evans I guess it is another huge training industry as IT Training is...Remember though many soft skills training techniques can be utilised in IT training delivery. Sometimes they are not used enough to aid effective learning
Corporate Learning Definitely. Coaching skills are fundamental to managers.
Lorraine Perry got to go now, thanks bye
Corporate Learning Bye Lorraine
Corporate Learning Has anyone done training online?
Corporate Learning Either soft skills or IT?
Rita Mascia very little
Rita Mascia IT
Corporate Learning It is not yet that prevalent in training, but will become more so.
Corporate Learning I'm quite certain that trainers who are able to train online will become more in demand.
Ben Hawes We had a question on Training ZOne's Any ANswers about whether you can learn soft skills online.
Corporate Learning And interestingly enough, soft skills training online is growing faster than IT
Corporate Learning Which may answer that question!
Corporate Learning Learning online is so new, it's hard to say whether it is more successful yet. Soft Skills can be done to some degree.
Ben Hawes Yes, probably not entirely?
Corporate Learning But as will all methods of delivery - classroom, online, CBT - the method should be chosen to match the content and the learners.
Corporate Learning The BLENDED solution! A bit of everything seems to be the way forward.
Corporate Learning Are you all classroom trainers then? What is your greatest fear as a classroom trainer?
Ben Hawes No one saying anything!
Corporate Learning ha ha!
Ben Hawes That, and maybe a very wide range of abilities
Corporate Learning Are you all too scared to speak?!
Rita Mascia I just recently started but my training is somehow sporadic (e.g. one morning every couple of months)
Corporate Learning Yes, definitely. Having a variety of learners- different experience and different learning styles - is a big challenge.
Corporate Learning How do you get around it, Ben?
George Reavis We are just getting into online training
Ben Hawes Try to get them to interact, so you don't have to keep pulling them together
Lisa Evans Biggest fears usually involve - "will I be able to get through all the content in the time avail, and include interaction and active based learning with my learners
Karen Parfrey I used to be a sales trainer a number of years ago i am wanting to break back into it perhaps on a freelance basis and i was attending today to get some hints
Corporate Learning Yes, Ben, good point. And planning a course that will reach a number of different learners with different activities.a
Corporate Learning So you have training skills already Karen?
Karen Parfrey They may be a little rusty but yes i have them. The difficulty is knowing how to market them
Ben Hawes Maybe promote yourself quite widely, but as a specilalist to each potential client!
George Reavis Have to run Allison, very informative - Thanks
Karen Parfrey When you say promote yourself where would you suggest. Writing to companies on speck or what?
Lisa Evans Some interview processes want you to show your skills, so have a quick 10-15 min delivery session sample ready to deliver if they ask
Dave Lobban Hi all. It's alison. I'm under a different name, i got kicked out.
<Dave Lobban What other questions do you have for us?
Lisa Evans I would suggest at this time to write to many organisations on speck, phone them up and let them know you are ready, willing and able!
Rita Mascia could we move on to the other topics you mentioned earlier on?
Ben Hawes Don't be afraid to ask established professionals for half an hour.
Dave Lobban Good point, Ben.
Dave Lobban Sure, Rita. Would you all like to discuss Issues inside the Classroom a little more? or Trends and further Development
Karen Parfrey I personally would like to look at trends and development if that is ok with every one
Ben Hawes Yep
Dave Lobban Sure. Rita, you also mentioned evaluation.
Rita Mascia yes please, how do we know we are doing a good job?
Dave Lobban When I was thinking of trends, I was thinking of things like accelerated learning, NLP (Neuro linguistic programming) and other training techniques.
Dave Lobban What are your areas of interest within that, or even outside of that?
Lisa Evans Getting and measuring returns on training investment is very popular at the moment as so many companies require to see the value of their spend
Karen Parfrey I am particularly interested in NLP
Dave Lobban Rita, evaluation is a hot topic in training. Are our learners objective evaluators of training!? Is a happy sheet at the end enough? There are many different theories on it.
Dave Lobban What do you know about NLP already, Karen? Ben?
Karen Parfrey I have experience in training in it with regard to communication skills, rapport building etc
Rita Mascia How can I demonstrate that the learners are benefiting and that as a trainer I need to change or improve something?
Dave Lobban You may know more than I do! LIsa is our resident NLP expert. I find it very interesting in regards to managing learners states - making sure they are in the frame of mind to learn.
Dave Lobban Sometimes, Rita, the best thing to do is just to ask them. Get them to think of a different way to deliver the module you just delivered. When you have the right rapport with them, this can be very useful.
Dave Lobban But the true measure of your success as a trainer is how well they do back on the job. Is there someway you can measure that?
Dave Lobban Karen, do you find NLP useful in training?
Ben Hawes I think evaluation after a period of time is very impressive, but also difficult to ensure.
Lisa Evans NLP is such a huge subject, and comprises of many things, joining an NLP organisation, newsletter, or researching suitable courses to attend, looking at books that have been written on the subject - will give you a flavour of waht it is all about
Karen Parfrey I have done in the past very much so and it is something i would like to learn more about because i think it has a number of applications
Parvinder Thanks for the advice guys, i'll email someone soon!! Regards
Dave Lobban Totally, Ben. It requires buy in from the management and needs consideration of what has happened with the learners since the course ended.
Dave Lobban Ta ta, Parvinder.
Ben Hawes Bye. Perhaps we should look to wind this up here?
Dave Lobban Yes, time is running out!
Dave Lobban Please do email me if you have further queries or if i said i would get back to you.
Dave Lobban Training is the BEST job!
Dave Lobban Good luck with it.
Karen Parfrey Thanks goodbye
Dave Lobban Thank you for your input everyone.
Rita Mascia thanks and goodbye everyone
Ben Hawes You can find an expert guide "How to gegin your career as a trainer" from the Training Zone Libaray.
Lisa Evans Alison - we can look to putting together a Getting started in Training resourse sheet and post it here
Dave Lobban Well, i think what ben referred to is just what we would do!
Dave Lobban I've seen it, it's a good resource.
Ben Hawes Cheers, everyone, thanks for all your input.
Dave Lobban Thanks Ben. Bye.
Dave Lobban Thank you , Lisa.
Lisa Evans Many thanks Alison - bye!
Dave Lobban Talk soon.