8 steps to prepare an effective training bag (Part 1)
8 steps to prepare an effective training bag (Part 1)
We all appreciate the value and benefit of workforce training which helps make employees more efficient and also helps to increase production, revenue, and profits while helping to reduce costs, waste and inefficiency. It also makes employees more satisfied, happy and connected to the workplace, which in turn helps reduce the costs of recruiting new employees, so training has many benefits.
But preparing a training bag is not easy, it may include many obstacles, for example: Prepare a training bag that does not support a target group, or aims to solve a problem that cannot be solved through training, or not specifying the goal of the training bag in the first place… Etc.
Now how can I set up an effective training bag?
Following is an 8-step roadmap to prepare an effective training bag:
Step 1: Assess the need for training
When you are aware of a problem and consider preparing a training bag to solve it, you should evaluate the situation before starting to prepare it. The first thing to do is analyze the problem to find out its causes and see if training is the solution, and if confirmed, it’s time to start searching and preparing the training bag.
Basic training needs are assessed through the most basic steps:
Target group selection supported by training bag content
Identify the tasks needed by trainees
Identify training activities that will help trainees learn to perform tasks
Identify the educational features of trainees that help make training more effective.
Here’s a simple explanation of each step:
Select the target group
Do training only if its objective is clear or if it does not help achieve a specific goal such as increasing revenues and competencies, reducing costs and wastes, supporting a new product, or if the training bag is not intended to qualify trainees to prepare a new product.
Identify the tasks needed by trainees:
Once you’ve set the goal of the training bag, think about what trainees should do when achieving that goal, and through this you’ll be able to identify a “performance gap” between what trainees can do now and what they are expected to be able to do.
Identify training activities that will help trainees learn to perform tasks:
In this step, you should identify training activities that will help trainees learn how to do these tasks.
Identify the educational features of trainees that help make training more effective:
Finally, you have to take into account the characteristics of the trainees in order to determine the type of training that will be more effective for them. It’s hard to set up content for a training bag that suits everyone, but you can set up content that fits the average level for the trainee group as a whole.
In this regard, there are some things to consider, such as: Are they most comfortable getting training through the computer or training under the supervision of trainers? Do they tend to teach mentors or to learn self? Are they young or old?
What are the best ways to get information, whether through reading, listening or practical application… Etc. Because it’s hard to prepare a single training bag for everyone, you have to adopt a training that brings all sides together so that the bag’s content is more accessible to everyone.
Step 2: Taking into account the foundations of adult education
We mentioned this part at the end of the first step, but it is so important that we take it in a separate step.
The trainees targeted by the training are adults, and adults have some features that make training more effective for them (or less effective if you ignore these features) if the content of your training bag values and respects the foundations of adult education, training may be more effective, but if the content of the training bag ignores these foundations, you waste training funds uselessly.
What are these foundations?
The large learners are characterized by:
Self-guidance: They attend training with their knowledge, experience and life views.
Guidance towards achieving goals: They want training that will help them achieve their goals so that it is geared towards accomplishing certain tasks.
The desire to learn if they find what will benefit them.
They want to feel respected.
Step 3: Developing training goals
Before starting to prepare any training bag it is important to prepare a list of training goals
Training objectives are the list of things that trainees should be able to do after training. Training goals are at the centre of your training bag and once you have set them up you can set up content that includes these goals and nothing else. In addition, any test, case study or practical tests performed during the training period to assess the extent to which trainees are able to meet the content of the training bag should only assess the trainees’ absorption of these objectives.
To overstate how important this point is, training goals are the ultimate goal of your training bag and without these goals it becomes as if a driver has lost control of a car.
Training goal attributes
When you write a goal, it must have five features: The goal must be specific in the sense that it is very clearly stated to all, and is measurable in the sense that it is possible for everyone to know whether the trainee is achieving the content or not, and it must be achievable so that the trainee has an opportunity to achieve it, as it must be relevant to the trainee’s job, and finally these objectives must be time-bound in the sense that it is clear when the trainee should be able to achieve the goal (at the end of the training).
Follow the second part of the article here
8 steps to prepare an effective training bag (Part II)
