I am sure you all must have thought about – qualities of a trainer, the must possess training abilities but what makes a trainer stand out, what makes him/her approachable for the trainees. A good trainer is one who is a continuous learner and that is what a trainer enforces his trainees to follow always.
Learning about the training styles holds great importance for a trainer. We must all know & explore the training ability, the methodology and about the learners. For what may work for ‘A’ bunch of trainees, might not work for the ‘B’ bunch of trainees. The learning ability of your trainees should be assessed and accordingly a training style shall be followed for the particular program.
You may be a very participative trainer but there may be some trainees who are not able to grasp things that way, they may be slow learners who need academic guidance before the activities. Some may be plain introverts who take time to learn in group dynamics.
So are you reaching out to your learners? Are you leaving an impact? Do you deliver & impart training – exactly as you would like to be taught? Or you are thinking of trying something new! Let us understand why Training Style is significant
Why discovering your training style is important? It is important for self-improvement, for better learning and development, to improvise your skill-set and to go with the flow.
Training is ever evolving. Technology for say, is adding on the training aids, making it more relevant and exciting. We need to discover the style to assess the right proportion & mix of training aids and trainer delivery. What you may teach a visual or video may not. You need to assess which training aid works best with your training style.
Also it helps in adaptation & customization of training programs. From examples to slides, everything needs a certain customization – not just to your style of delivery but also with your audience. The merit of the customers, their interest levels, the program orientation and the purpose of the program you are a trainer for, all these aspects shall be well captured and to evolve forever as a trainer – discovering your merits and upgrades in L & D is a must.
Discovery of your style, training aids, market needs all these are significant and this discovery helps a trainer to impart effectively.
We need to choose the training style. It is good to have a standard training style but you must choose the training style based on the factors involved in a particular training exercise. Following should be the factors which one must take into account for choosing a training style –
A training style shall be adopted keeping in mind the learners. Their level of experience, qualification and previous sessions attended. Also to be kept in mind is their job profile, the skill-set required in the work conditions etc.
A training style shall also be selected on the basis of training duration, the hours allotted for a program and a particular subject. You may adopt a facilitation training model for the basic understanding of subject but a participator style is good if you have a good number of hours for the similar subject – which will empower the module through practical ways of imparting training.
Content holds important in training style as the trainer need to devise the module & aids according to the content. Like Negotiation can be best taught through Role Plays but Leadership can be best imparted through Examples. Here, the trainer must also ascertain the skill-set and his comfort & confidence level.
So think about & share your style?