Selecting the right trainer

How to select an external trainer

Here’s a few thoughts; how much have they found about your company, how interested are they to find out from you more about your company and the delegates who will attend, are they asking lots of questions about the potnetial issues being faced by the delegates, how much time do they spend talking about how the delegates will apply what they learn? If asked about their most successful moment in training do they talk about themselves a lot or what their learners achieved? Do they actually listen to you and respond appropriately to your comments, questions or observations? How clear are they about the outcomes of the training (outcomes should be fixed and content variable). How well do they get ideas across to you? Are they interesting to listen to/ watch? You mention facilitator at the end of the question. If the workshop calls for facilitation and not training delivery you need to be sure that the nominees have actually facilitated groups before as this is a much harder skill set.

If you have testimonials they should mention what the learners took away from the training and describe what the trainer does that is successful with learners.

Assuming subject knowledge and experience are similar my preference would be for the trainer who shows genuine enthusiasm and energy for the subject and shows effective ways of helping learners engage with it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Nick

3 Responses

perspec1 says:

January 18, 2011 at 9:52 pm

How to select an external trainer

Here’s a few thoughts; how much have they found about your company, how interested are they to find out from you more about your company and the delegates who will attend, are they asking lots of questions about the potnetial issues being faced by the delegates, how much time do they spend talking about how the delegates will apply what they learn? If asked about their most successful moment in training do they talk about themselves a lot or what their learners achieved? Do they actually listen to you and respond appropriately to your comments, questions or observations? How clear are they about the outcomes of the training (outcomes should be fixed and content variable). How well do they get ideas across to you? Are they interesting to listen to/ watch? You mention facilitator at the end of the question. If the workshop calls for facilitation and not training delivery you need to be sure that the nominees have actually facilitated groups before as this is a much harder skill set.

If you have testimonials they should mention what the learners took away from the training and describe what the trainer does that is successful with learners.

Assuming subject knowledge and experience are similar my preference would be for the trainer who shows genuine enthusiasm and energy for the subject and shows effective ways of helping learners engage with it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Nick
User deleted says:

January 31, 2011 at 10:04 am

Getting the right trainer

Hey

Nick makes some excellent suggestions. I’d also add in a trial; either submit a lesson plan as an example, assess your self whether it "reads" suitable for your people., if you can see them in practise.

LSP
khush1616 says:

January 31, 2011 at 10:22 am

Thanks Nick

This really helped!

Cheers!