Designing Training Programs- Getting to the Training Blueprints

I am putting down in my blog what I learnt in my 10 years as a trainer. I have delivered courses in classroom, created web based courses, coached via face to face, email and other means. Now I believe I have acquired new ideas and skills that will enhance the way I deliver training programs. But what I put down here is not something that is perfect and I know if I put it down here and there are people who can comment, I will learn more.

After you have created the Training Goals, you then design the program itself. Even at this stage I don't think about delivery yet but I keep it at the back of my head to create possibilities of how I would like to deliver the subject. I put in the content at this stage following the training goals.

E.g. You will be able to confidently demonstrate at least 3 benefits of using the product to a customer in 3 minutes.

They would need to learn what is the product all about? What can it do? How does it benefit the customer? Also have to consider materials used- product brochure? slide presentation? If they need to be demonstrating, maybe they would need a hands on session. So it would roughly look something like this

1. Product Description & Information
2. Hands On Section
3. Roleplaying

Then only I will think of delivery.

Product Description and Information is something maybe they can learn on their own and maybe before they come for a hands on session. Normally I would like it if the learners can read on their own, maybe a technical read out in a pdf file or word document or if the subject already available somewhere in the company's intranet or Internet.

Hands On Section does not necessarily be in a classroom, it can be back at workplace- if the subject can be easily learnt and the resources are available, if it is too complex then maybe classroom would be required. Again classroom, would it be virtual or actual physical depends on a few factors like time you will need to deliver this, complexity of the product, etc.

Roleplaying usually means it is a classroom setting but they are several ways you can do this with technology as well like Second Life. The trick of roleplaying is that they learners try to simulate the roles in reality. The tendency is they love to play the overly irritated customer and so on. So a level of control is required if roleplaying is to be successful.

In delivery, I try design it using FUN. You might ask how do you inject fun in the Product Description and Information? It is too boring. If you think creatively, you can put in a challenge and say that they will need to do a presentation the first thing they come into the classroom and you can also put in a prize for best presentation, or best creative presentation. It can also be a group work, so they have like 20 min to prepare and so on. Go nuts, get creative. The more time you put into planning this, the better it gets.