Hello
I am writing an article and am interested as to whether IT trainers feel there are particular issues that relate to IT training specifically rather than training in general.
Stella Collins
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6 Responses
Make it lively & interactive
PCs layout:Trainer should be able to see all screens from one angle. Swivel chairs: Trainees can turn around for trainer’s eye contact. Problems:External noise
relfelctions on screens.
Clear, simple, progressive, correctly paced & pitched instructions & rapport is essential.Every 20 minutes, change of activity,looking at overhead, flip chart, questions/answers helps.
Subgroups: During consolidation exercises(doing different tasks to make it interactive) helps.
Preparation for things going wrong.
Ideally make sure all software and sample exercise files are pre-loaded. Get there early to make sure they are! (Take spare discs/CDs in case they aren’t.) Check software versions beforehand. Allow for faulty technology – you don’t have time to fix it on the day. Our training suite has 8 delegate PCs but we only ever book 7 – allows for a spare if anything goes wrong. If possible try not to depend upon a network. For instance, consider having web pages copied to CD as back-up in case connection is poor. Have local printers if you can. Have back-up teaching points/methods if particular elements malfunction or if software is not configured correctly. Be suspicious!
IT Training Issues
Quite apart from the operational issues of running IT courses, one of the fundamental differences in my experience as both an IT trainer and trainer in personal development is that of accepting concepts. For instance, in IT, if I say “Press that button or click that icon” I can virtually guarantee what will happen as a result. But in personal development, I can suggest an idea and the delegate may well completely disagree. It is a far less straightforward approach – although in IT there are many ways of achieving the same result, it is not so much based on opinion, or attitude – but hard evidence of what will or won’t work. Hope that makes sense – but it was a fundamental step change for me when I moved into personal development.
IT training issues
The biggest issue for IT trainers, in my experience, is to realise that IT supports but doesn’t lead an organisation. The focus of good IT training should be on the business requirements of the IT, and not on the functionality of the products, which is often easily learnt.
IT trainers often train without first doing a needs analysis. On that basis, they will inevitably train the system and not the job. The art of good IT training is to train the job and not the system. This holds true at almost all levels of IT training from the desktop product training through to the big ticket ERP and CRM implementations.
Regards
David
David Cotton Associates Ltd
http://www.davidcottonassociates.com
Differences
All of the previous comments contain excellent insights into the differences.
The following thoughts are from my experience:
Information Technology changes so rapidly that to stay employed, you have to keep abreast of all new developments. I believe that this pressure, is more pertinent in IT, than any other training area .
There is a steep learning curve if you transfer from training to IT Training. You are expected to learn new areas/aspects of IT every day.
Also, you are expected to be an expert in all IT areas, not just the areas that you have specialised in.
IT Training also has a high cost involved with systems implementation, upkeep, upgrades which all effect IT training budgets.
On a superficial level, IT Training is better paid than most other training areas.
Interest group on this subject coming soon…
All
We’ll shortly be launching an area of the site dedicated to this subject, so stay tuned!
Stephanie Phillips
Editor, TrainingZONE