Helping You To Commission The Best Possible Training From Us

Training is expensive so we want to ensure that what we provide is what you want. We want our training to provide the support your staff need in order for them to be committed to your organisation and to be motivated to provide the best service they can. In order to achieve this we need to work in partnership with you to produce well-designed training programmes which are integral to your staff management processes.

We believe that training should be relevant and participants should appreciate the relevance. Training which is imposed won't work and neither will training which has been provided on the basis of what seems to be available and off the shelf. Consider what your training needs are before you look at what is on offer otherwise your imagination may be constrained by what seems to be available.

What training do your staff think they need? Ask them what training they want. Bear in mind that what you think they need and what they think they need are two different things. Be prepared to negotiate openly about what training your organisation might be willing to fund. Integrate an awareness of training into other management activities. Discuss training needs in your one to one meetings with people. When there are challenges and problems, ask if the provision of appropriate training would help. Be willing to meet your staff halfway on the basis that they are more likely to take the training you want them to have if they feel you are willing to offer them some of what they want too. Ensuring that your prospective trainees want to engage with the training you provide maximises the chances they will benefit from it and you will have made the most of your training budget.

Good quality, well designed, and carefully tailored training has the potential to meet a wide range of needs. On an individual level, it helps staff gain the skills and knowledge to do their job better. To achieve this, skills training needs to be practical. The necessary skills should be identified, preferably with reference to the relevant National Occupational Standards, and the level of proficiency agreed before the training takes place. People learn best if they see the skills demonstrated and then have the chance to practise them with honest feedback provided in a supportive environment so we make full use of demonstrations and real life examples. We've also found that course participants like well-presented handouts to which they can refer later in order to confirm and reinforce their on-course learning.

Training can also provide people with the space to reflect upon their practice away from the distractions of the workplace. We think that people will be more committed and motivated if they are given an opportunity to discuss the philosophical and political values that underpin their agency. Having a chance to explore their attitudes and take an honest look at possible prejudices in an atmosphere where one isn't fearful of being harshly criticised and where there is a clear agreement about confidentiality is important to participants. People learn best when they have the freedom to ask awkward questions and express honest doubts.

Training doesn't have to be all hard work. In fact, effective organisations encourage their people to see training as a reward and as time out from everyday work. People generally leave our training events full of enthusiasm and new ideas. We think it is important to provide a pleasant learning environment. We know people learn best when they are physically comfortable: the temperature is just right; noises from outside are minimum; and there is easy access to toilets and refreshments so this is what we ask training commissioners to provide when we run on-site courses. We take responsibility for providing the other elements that make training a success: a convivial, relaxed atmosphere in which people are treated with respect. We make our training stimulating by offering a variety of different activities in short bursts: large group discussions, small group tasks, quizzes, and demonstrations all help maintain participants' interest and enthusiasm.

Learning together as a staff group helps to promote teamwork in the workplace. Conversely, when people attend from a variety of workplaces, training can provide an opportunity to discuss team relationships in an honest, constructive way. People can then go back to their teams with a more positive frame of mind and new skills and strategies to improve their working relationships.

Our trainers are well placed to ask questions and to stimulate conversations which internal staff might be reluctant to initiate. We don't have a longstanding relationship with the people we are training so our relationship starts off fresh. We don't face the prospect of working closely with participants after the training as their colleagues do, so we can be more comfortable about offering challenging feedback. Participants often find the opportunity to discuss organisational issues frankly within training sessions useful. We use questions as a way of challenging people to take responsibility for developing solutions and don't allow long moaning sessions. Because of this, participants are generally willing to have us give group feedback about issues of common concern to management. In this way our training can provide managers with a barometer of staff morale and an informal organisational review.

We believe that clarity of purpose and communication are key to working with people in any context so we work hard to model this in what we do. We encourage training commissioners to think carefully about what they want to achieve through training. We like to work with you in refining learning objectives so that they are realistic and achievable within the resources we have. We favour an informal, open style of working where everyone feels values and consulted and we think this is perfectly consistent with being clear and efficient.

We look forward to discussing your training needs with you.

Adam May
January 2009

Contact us now to discuss your training needs.