When I take a training course I should be excited about the value proposition of learning something new and being able to apply it. Unfortunately not everyone finds this to be the case. If I have heard it once I have heard it a hundred times, ‘ugh, I have that 3 day course coming up and I really rather not be bothered.”
Clearly you are using the wrong training organizations. There are lots of great trainers, training organizations out there. Many who are considering training look at the list of potential trainers and see the price first, which is not going to get you the value that you might be looking for. After all not only does the training have a cost but having a person away from work also has a price tag. You need to be very selective. This is why finding the training which has the best engagement methods is key. Best value for your money.
The unfortunate alternative is that a person goes to the training session, dreading it. They’ll likely not be fully attentive, may be more prone to daydream, and while they might pass the test to get the certificate the information will be fuzzy. The effects of this will be that great information may not be applied or utilized by your organization, diminishing the value you hoped to gain from attending in the first place.
So what should we be looking for in training?
Training Description
Wherever you are looking for the training take a close look at the session description and see if it matches up to any available syllabus. Does it mention the trainers and their level of experience. Has the session been rated by peers or by people in your field. Is the session confirmed by the training organization, or are there regular cancellations due to low turn out. A session with good marketing will entice you from the start, but always check around.
Stories
In my opinion there is nothing more dull that having someone regurgitate material or a slide deck for hours or days on end. frankly if I wanted to do that I could have just read the material on my own. To engage the learners facilitators should leverage stories from their experiences to not only keep people interested but also tie into the course material. People will naturally learn and retain more information when something is told to them in the form of a story.
Gamification
Creating interactive games to relay important information helps learning become more effective as people can relate the material to an actual action as well as getting them out of their seats. It enables the learners to see the material in a real-world scenarios that they can relate to. It also provides the learners an opportunity to interact with other attendees and get a mental break from being talked at for long periods of time.
Additional Material
Training organizations with the best programs typically will share information with you after the fact. Why? Well having you engaged with the material will help them to attract further trainees through your word of mouth as well as having you stick with them should further levels of training be required. They have no fear in sharing the information as that is the objective of a great learning organization.
Slide Content
If a sample of the material is available you might get some insight to what the session will be like. Having ‘eye charts’ with loads of black text over white background is not going to keep you engaged if your training session is more than 30 minutes so having relevant levels of information along with visuals will go a long way to keep your eyes moving
This all works great for on premise training but what about online or virtual training?
Really good training providers in this space have come up with ways to get around not being in the room. Because they leverage the ‘learn at your pace’ platforms they also may have an advantage of you being a captive for days at a time. allowing the learner to consume information in amounts they can handle. In addition they often set up online communities or networking groups so that participants can bounce ideas off each other further contributing to the learning experience.
Training is a very important part of not only a persons career but ensuring that organizations can be sure to have the top talent on their teams. It improves employee performance and satisfaction, which leads to reduced turnover of staff. this is why it is important to seek out high value training.