I have developed technical training courses for the past 20 years. Too many to count.
What I have learned is training development with technical content for technical people is an art. Most get it wrong.
Technical people, especially those with too many education credentials, tend to be too technical.
The result is needlessly complicated and comprehensive training classes. They try to make the trainee competent after two, three, or five days of training.
The focus should be on giving the trainee confidence. Keep it simple.
Focus on the necessary fundamentals and reinforce the basic principles.
Confidence, not competence, is the recipe for a winning training program.
Tags: confidence, training
October 30th, 2009 at 4:22 am
The trainees Competence is an attainable goal, with Confidence as well. But have you ever noticed Tim, that with exception of a notable few, that training is often not about what the students knows, but instead some kind of validation of what the instructor knows.
Valuable training offers:
- SKILLS Transfer (which means not piling on detail)
- Application of knowledge in a safe environment
- Opportunity to make mistakes
- Flexibility for varying levels of incoming knowledge
- Realistic expectations
As one of the best trainers I’ve seen you are right to note that often the “trainer” sets some arbitrary standard for what the student must “know”. Instead we need to focus on what they can do, that they be willing to try in the future, and it is okay to leave knowing that there is something that they need help on, or call for support.