What Makes A Successful Trainer?
“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice”. – Brian Herbert
Learning keeps a person young; the ability to adapt with time and evolve is the sign of life. While the inability to change often leads to extinction. This is the reason why more and more organizations are learning the importance of in-house training programs.
Corporate training in Dubai and the rest of the developed world is massively increasing in demand, with more and more organizations hiring the services of training companies and independent trainers.
But have you ever wondered what do these trainers have that you don’t? Or what makes a trainer, successful? Well here we are breaking it down to you in a very simple manner.
What It Takes
Through surveys, interviews and consultation with the management, trainers assess the needs of the employees of an organization. Based on these needs, they prepare their material which may consist of videos, presentations, self-help manuals, etc.
The trainers then engage the employees in a variety of training programs that can be task based, team-building, motivational, communications and skill training based. The programs can even be collaborative, making the employees work with experts to compete in certain tasks.
Educational Requirements
To become a corporate trainer, one must have a bachelor’s degree in training and development, human resource management, or instructional design. In addition, a Masters of Arts in training and learning can also lead you to becoming a trainer.
Many business school and universities are offering courses as part of their existing modules to train their students. Furthermore, many independent training institutions are providing specialist and executive training programs.
Skills
Most professional trains work diligently on themselves first to be able to impact-fully help others. In order to succeed in any industry, trainers need to possess these skills:
Instructional Techniques
A trainer specializes in conducting a Training Needs Analysis, to determine the needs of employees in terms of training. The course of direction of the program and the instructional design is based on this needs analysis. The idea behind is that adults learn in different ways through different techniques and using those techniques to teach them at the level they understand.
A trainer is well-versed on different training techniques and is able to determine the approach needed to instruct the employees he’s currently dealing with. The approach can be active and hands-on or teacher-based where the trainer takes the role of a facilitator.
Strategic Thinking and Flexibility
The major difference between a traditional teacher and a trainer is that the latter does not stick to a rigid instructional plan. Their ability to think on their feet sets them apart. They are able to gear their dialogue and teaching techniques according to the response they receive to maximize its effectiveness.
Unlike teachers, a trainer has to deal with and facilitate individuals from completely different walks of life. A trainer has to objectively instruct employees working in different departments, usually all in the same session. This requires flexibility to adapt quickly and work with the responses you get as you go.
Interpersonal Skills
It goes without saying that a trainer has to be a good communicator. The basic job of a trainer is get information across to the masses in a way that is comprehensible to them. A teacher can be as knowledgeable as it get but that knowledge is of no use if he can’t make transfer it viable to his pupils.
The trainer has to be an expert in getting his point across verbally, non-verbally and on paper. A trainer takes his pupils in consideration and delivers the message in a concise and clear manner, and also knows when to remain silent and listen.
Good Learner
All good trainers are great learners. The drive to teach comes from the urge to learn something new every day. Trainers usually need to train individuals from completely different industries, and to do that effectively, they must be able to learn what they need to teach first. This often includes subjects that they had no previous knowledge on.
In addition to that, trainers are constantly in training themselves to acquire the best teaching techniques available and how to be better at delivering the knowledge.
Conclusion
Corporate training is growing in demand simply because of the fact that organizations are learning how beneficial it is for their businesses to have regularly trained employees who are motivated to give more.
A motivated, enthusiastic staff is often the outcome of a successful training program that can be achieved by a good trainer that has amazing communication skills. A good trainer knows all teaching techniques to be able to facilitate his pupils more effectively and is good at thinking on his feet.