Archives for the Train the Trainer category

Among all the other scandals of recent weeks came the revelation that Lloyds PPI complaints handlers were being trained to purposely reject valid claims.

An audio recording of an in-company trainer was seized upon by The Times as evidence that the banking group had been engaging in less than ethical practices.

The trainer told trainees to flat out deny or refuse claims, as most customers would give up trying to claim after an initial rejection.

Lloyds place the blame on the firm Deloitte who handled the whole program and another firm, Momenta, who was responsible for the hiring and training of the employees dealing with claims.

It shows that just as good training can have an immediate and lasting positive effect on businesses, bad training can have a severely negative one – something we emphasise on our Train the Trainer Course.

So how can businesses and individuals make sure they’re getting the best possible training?

The Trainer’s Responsibility

Much of the responsibility for quality training falls at the feet of the trainer; after all they’re the ones delivering the training! Not only do they need to fully understand the needs of the client, they must find a way to communicate their message in an engaging and memorable way.

They also have a duty to not misinform. In the Lloyds case, it would appear that the trainer either gave false information to delegates or at the very least recommended methods that were in no way best practice. Read the rest of "Lloyds PPI Scandal – Bad Training at Fault"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Train the Trainer on June 14th, 2013| No Comments »

At some point during a career in training you’ll have to train somebody for whom English isn’t a first language. In this situation, it can be difficult to stick to your established learning methods and activities.

On our 2-day Train the Trainer course, we explain in detail how to cater for different levels and learning styles, and teaching non-native English speakers comes under a similar bracket.

With all that in mind, we decided to put together a guide to help you deal with this challenge. So what’s the first you can do to make things easier for you and your delegates?

Limit the Jargon

For someone who has just learnt, is still learning, or who rarely speaks English, technical jargon can be a bit of a stumbling block. Words that have little meaning without deep context can be confusing to native speakers, let alone those with English as a second language.

Read the rest of "Addressing a Language Barrier in Training"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Train the Trainer on May 1st, 2013| No Comments »

A skill that is essential to good training, and that is emphasised on our Train the Trainer course, is the ability to ask the right kinds of questions in order to best challenge and get the most from delegates.

Since Socrates’ time, questioning has been taken to be an effective method for all sorts of teaching as it gives the student the opportunity to ruminate and run over information in their mind as they answer.

Questioning is also a very effective way to deal with difficult delegates, when used as part of a broader strategy.

We thought it would be a good idea to explain some of the different varieties of questions that can be used in training with some examples of how they can be used:

Leading Questions

Leading questions are particularly important in training. The idea is to ask a question that has the under-surface intention of bringing someone around to your point of view.

These can be particular useful in a disagreement with a delegate when you know you’re right (although have the potential to backfire if you’re wrong!). Used well and they can be a powerful tool, but used badly and it can make you seem manipulative; so use with care.

Read the rest of "Questions in Training"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Train the Trainer on March 22nd, 2013| No Comments »

Music is widely recognised as an effective teaching aid for young children but is often dismissed as a ‘novelty’ technique when talking about the development and training of adults. In fact, music is useful as an educational tool for all ages for a wide variety of reasons.

In this post I’m going to look at why music can be such a great method to help with training and give examples as to how you can integrate it into your sessions.

For maximum impact, music should be used alongside questioning techniques and even Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques; both of which can be learnt on our Train the Trainer Course.

Mood Setting

Music is strangely powerful when it comes to creating a mood, for individuals and groups alike. With that in mind, you can use it to your advantage in training sessions. It’s worth having a bank of varied music stored on your laptop or phone or a subscription to a music streaming service like Spotify (and don’t forget external speakers!).

From invoking a sense of concentration with some Mozart or Bach (or whichever ‘classical’ composer works for you) to garnering some enthusiasm with some upbeat, even motivational music (Eye of the Tiger anyone?) – used in the right way it can make training sessions a more pleasant and balanced experience for everyone, especially if you have difficult delegates on the course.

Read the rest of "Hitting the Right Notes – Using Music in Training"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Train the Trainer on February 21st, 2013| 1 Comment »

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of working as a trainer (or in any profession) is encountering people who make your job harder. On courses they can range from the disinterested to the disobedient to the downright disgraceful!

Being able to manage these people, while maintaining a positive demeanour for the other delegates, can be particularly tough. For that reason, we’ve put together a list of 5 video resources that can have a huge impact on the way you respond to and deal with people who cause trouble, in whatever form.

We also cover this topic in great depth on our Train the Trainer Course as we feel that to truly master the art of training you need to be able to cope with the good, the bad and the ugly! You can also check out this post from our trainer Shaun on how to build rapport with anyone. Read the rest of "5 Video Guides to Training Difficult People"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Train the Trainer on February 11th, 2013| No Comments »

In this post our trainer Shaun guides you through how to forge strong relationships with the different people you meet each day including, if you’re a trainer, your delegates.

True communication requires a connection between people. When you want to build rapport with someone at work, at home, on a course, in a relationship, when trying to sell something or when trying to buy something, you should consider the following tips:

Learn all the skills you need to build rapport with your delegates on our Train the Trainer Course.

First Impressions

It may seem unfair that we are judged on our appearance but research indicates that people form a lasting impression of us within the first five minutes of meeting. Make sure you make a great first impression by dressing to impress, smiling and being assertive (which also leads to greater self-confidence!) and giving a firm handshake.

Finding Common Ground

Finding common ground or common interests is a good way to start a conversation. For example talk about work, sport or children and remember this common ground for future conversations. People will be much more open and trusting if they recognise a bond between you. Read the rest of "Building Rapport With Just About Anyone"

Posted by Shaun in Assertiveness, Business Skills, Human Resources, News, Personal Development, Train the Trainer on January 11th, 2013| No Comments »

When finishing a course, it is imperative that you finish on a positive note. Not only will this instill greater confidence in your learners but will give you a boost with regard to being able to see the effectiveness of your training.

You want your learners to leave feeling energised, positive and full of ideas of how they are going to implement everything they have learned.

You can learn more about ending on a high note on our Train the Trainer Course.

This means you need to leave enough time at the end of the course to really pull everything together and commit everyone to saying what they are going to do next!

How to End on a High

• Put a big sheet of paper in the middle of the room and give out marker pens – ask everyone to draw on the sheet and answer the question ‘how do you feel about training now?”. Discuss and extrapolate from the drawings the true feelings of the learners. Expect to receive some interesting and funny ones! Read the rest of "Train the Trainer: Ending on a High"

Posted by Mary in Human Resources, News, Train the Trainer on December 24th, 2012| No Comments »

We were really excited recently when Pure360, one of the UK’s leading email and SMS marketing providers, contacted us with a problem: they wanted to change the way their in-house training was delivered, based on our popular Train the Trainer course, to develop a structured process for sharing their wealth of expertise throughout the company.

After consultation with our lead TTT trainer, we designed a high energy, interactive session with lots of practical content.  As staff from across the company would be attending, the training needed to be relevant for both those new to the subject and those with more experience.

So they could use their new skills immediately, we used work based examples to make the training directly relevant to the work they do.

If you want to improve your in-house training, or believe your training needs analysis then our Train the Trainer workshops come highly recommended, allowing you to build on your strengths and work on your weaknesses to make sure that your delegates learn everything they need to and leave the session satisfied.

Don’t just take our word for it though, Pure360 contacted us recently to let us know how much they enjoyed the training…

From Vicky Cohen, Head of Talent Management, Pure360

“At Pure360 we have a huge amount of email marketing expertise in house and because we work in a fast moving technology sector, we really are the experts at what we do.  We needed to tap into the heads of our resident experts and help them share to their knowledge with each other.  This is why we decided to offer Train the Trainer training to approximately 50% of our staff (45 employees).

We worked with Silicon Beach to put together a course that fitted our company culture and needs and the course received ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ feedback across the board.  Even experienced trainers left the training with renewed ideas and enthusiasm for how to get their message across to their audience in an engaging and memorable way. Read the rest of "Train the Trainer Case Study: Pure360"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Human Resources, News, Train the Trainer on November 19th, 2012| No Comments »