Nik Kellingley eloquently argues that trainers should adopt a more 'scientific' approach and demonstrate their value by sharing their results and submitting them for peer review. Where are the practical demonstrations of a profession invested in real development of talent and people, he asks?

'Those who can, do, those who can't, teach.' They're bitter words to hear about my profession, but unfortunately in the main they're true.

'But training is more than teaching.' Not really, but while we're caught up in the bitter row over semantics (learning vs. development vs. teaching vs. training vs. human resource partner) we're not getting any closer to making this profession more valuable.

All of these professions are supposed to equip learners/trainees/delegates/students with the skills to complete tasks that add value to their working lives and to their employer's ability to deliver goods or services to a competitive market place.

However, all too often they don't. We've heard a lot about the mechanics of evaluation, since there has been article after article on how to do it, from the happy sheet to the return on investment calculation.

Where are the examples? Where are the practical demonstrations of a profession invested in real development of talent and people? They seem to be missing. In the last few months on TrainingZone.co.uk there have been articles on evaluation, there have been articles demanding the 'professionalisation' of our field, and many surveys telling us exactly what the survey takers wanted to tell us.

However, there have been no case studies of effective learning events, no comparisons between training needs analysis and the actual evaluated results, and no learning points discussed from failed training events. Does that mean not one trainer has had a disastrous or surprising result in the last three months? Did every single one of us get exactly the results we expected, no better or worse than that indicated by the training needs analysis?

Has anybody come up with a satisfactory way of eliminating the Hawthorne effect from their evaluations? Has anyone even tried?

To my mind, we are currently a profession of artists, desperately clinging to the idea that 'it's obvious that training is of benefit' to those in receipt of our dark art. Where is the science? Where are the demonstrations of worth? Where's the sharing of knowledge between practitioners beyond the level of 'I believe this works'? No wonder we're underpaid and undervalued.

Recently someone I admire in a senior position said to me: "Nik you're so able, it's such a shame you're wasting your life in training". That's not much of a compliment whichever way you cut it but it absolutely shines the spotlight on how much training is really valued in a business context.

The best scientific approach to the effectiveness of a training methodology I have seen is in Neil Rackham's excellent study on spin selling. But even there, he concludes that whilst it seems to have been successful, the effects of training were not well isolated enough to be certain that the method is effective – though it's certainly been widely adopted.

We should be able to do better - and in the long run we must do better if we want to establish ourselves as true professionals. I'll confess I've not been developing or delivering training in this last year very much at all, I've been working in an operational context, though I'm likely to return to the training field very soon.

I'll also confess that it's been rare for me to work with other professionals at my own level of development, though I've been fortunate to work with some of the rising stars in the field here in the Gulf. Furthermore, I'd like to learn more, and I'd like to know more about what works. In order to do that, we need to start sharing our results and submitting them for peer review in the same way scientists do.

Otherwise, all we share are our beliefs, and attendance at the church of training is one thing that all too many resist, precisely because we can't demonstrate our value.

Nik Kellingley is a trainer currently working in the Middle East. His current role is client operations manager with a strong focus on training