Langevin's Train-the-Trainer Blog

I drove past my local town hall recently. The electronic sign read, “New Resident Engagement Platform. Join the conversation now.” I thought to myself, “What an interesting term—engagement platform.” It seems that everywhere we go people are talking about “engagement.” Whether it’s resident engagement, employee engagement, or learner engagement.

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Every year Training Magazine publishes a list of organizations whose training departments are deemed to be most effective and most efficient. To be on this top 125 list, training departments must meet a lengthy list of criteria. The criteria range from infrastructure, needs analysis, and metrics to delivery standards, finance, and overall training strategy.

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There are many theories and approaches to how adults learn, many of them developed between the 1940’s and 1970’s. Although developed several years ago, these models still drive much of the adult learning today.

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The world of writing typically has three areas: literary, academic, and technical. Our first exposure to writing is usually literary. As a child in school, the teacher asked us to write a story or poem about what we did over the summer. We were asked to be descriptive, use imaginative language, and make our story come to life. In high school and into college or university, we were required to produce academic works such as essays, articles, critical papers, and biographies. When writing academic papers, we were often told to meet a word requirement. As a result, we became conditioned to take 5000 words to say something that might only take 500 words.

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If people in your organization are not aware of the purpose or the benefit of training programs and services available to them, then the people responsible for the training are missing an important piece of the puzzle: marketing. I’m not referring to the marketing and promotion of training to the outside world, but the marketing and promotion of training within your own organization. In some organizations, employees and departments might not be aware of the training products and services available.

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When training adults we often assume they know how to learn and have already developed techniques to help them acquire knowledge and skill. This is not necessarily the case. After being in the workplace for years, some adults have been out of their “learning mode” for quite some time and may have forgotten how to learn. It is important that we remind adult learners of the techniques that will help them learn while in class.

As instructional designers, we write course materials that can make or break the success of a carefully designed and delivered workshop. First impressions count, especially in the written form, and participants often make judgments about the quality of the workshop based solely on the way the materials are written. 

Often when an instructional designer is tasked with building a performance-based, blended learning solution to address a training need, the first constraint they consider is the available technology. The technology you choose can have a huge impact on the success of any blended learning solution. Questions to consider are: “Can we use video?”, “Can we build a robust online simulation?”, or “Do we have enough broadband?”

At Langevin we define training as “giving people the knowledge and skills required to do their current job.” There’s been a lot of research on the history of training and development, and a quick internet search can provide you with a detailed account of how training people to do their jobs has evolved over time. The history of training is quite interesting.

A recent conversation with a client revolved around the self-esteem of adult learners. In the 1970’s, Malcolm Knowles wrote extensively about learning principles relating to self-esteem specifically in adult learners. He believed that adult learners have something to lose and a strong need to maintain their self-esteem. Courses they attend should be set up to ensure successful outcomes, and adult learners need to feel they are being heard.