The document provides guidance on designing effective training courses. It discusses 8 key considerations when designing a course: 1) matching needs and solutions, 2) setting objectives, 3) structuring the course, 4) creating the right learning environment, 5) understanding trainees, 6) planning content, 7) constraints, and 8) administration. It also provides tips on specific aspects of design like sequencing content, breaking skills down, designing exercises, and getting management support. The overall message is that designing training requires balancing many factors to create a successful learning experience for trainees.

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Designing Training
Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
Designing Training
TRAINING SKILLS

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Designing Training
Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
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Designing Training
Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Designing Training
Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Designing a training course requires the mixing of a large
number of ingredients. We need to think about what inputs
will bridge the performance gap; we need to find trainers
who are both knowledgeable and able to build rapport; we
need to know what will interest the trainees; we need to
know what results the organisation is looking for. And when
we've designed our programme, we need to be ready to
jettison it entirely if it is clear that we need to do something
entirely different instead.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
HOW TO DESIGN A COURSE
There are eight considerations to make when designing a
training course:
1. matching needs and solutions: ie designing training
solutions that meet training needs
2. setting training objectives: ie setting targets for each
training session as well as overall directions for learning
3. putting a course together: ie meeting the whole
spectrum of trainee needs
4. creating the right environment: ie creating the right
climate for learning to take place
5. thinking about trainees: ie continually adapting the
contents of a session to meet the trainees' needs
6. planning the content: ie designing contents, their order
and sequence
7. constraints: ie working within the limitations of time,
money, and other resources
8. administration: ie organising the event.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
MATCHING
There can never be absolute certainty that the training
needs you identify in a person or group will definitely be
solved by the choice of training. Even if you could design a
perfect match between needs and solutions a person may
still be unwilling to learn, in which case the match would
fail.
1. If a person need leadership skills, is it better to send her
on an outward-bound course to climb mountains or
have a series of chats with the managing director?
2. If a person needs confidence-building, is it better to
send him on an assertiveness course or coach him after
each key encounter?
3. If a person needs business skills, is it better to send her
on a 3-week management development course or
arrange for a secondment at one of the smaller units?

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
TRAINING OBJECTIVES
Once a training course has been agreed as the best way to
meet a training need, objectives need to be agreed on the
expected outcomes.
Objectives can be different for each person, but it would be
impractical to expect to meet everyone's needs. We should
therefore make a distinction between "direction" and
"targets".
Direction is the way in which we want learning to go; eg
"the aim of the course is to achieve a better understanding
of the new telephone system.“
Targets are the positive, specific, measurable outcomes
which we would expect a person to achieve in a given time,
say, at the end of the training; eg "at the end of the training,
trainees will be able to use the three main recall functions
of the telephone system."

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
DIRECTIONS AND TARGETS
The context of a training session is the direction of the
learning; the content of a session is the target of the
learning.
1. When we set directions, we will use deliberately vague
and open-ended verbs such as "know", "understand",
"appreciate" and "learn", eg "at the end of the training,
trainees will understand the principles of first aid."
2. When we set targets, on the other hand, we need to
use precise and measurable verbs like "list", "recite",
"identify", "count", "write down", "do", "make" and
"show", eg "at the end of training, trainees will be able
to list seven different principles of good first aid
practice." Precise verbs allow us to test and measure
memory, retention and skill ability and are important for
evaluation.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
PLANNING A COURSE
When designing a training session, it is helpful to think of
the different needs that trainees will have. These can be
described according to the hierarchy of needs of
psychologist Abraham Maslow's model.
They are:
1. basic needs: rooms, toilets, breaks, snacks, meals,
expenses, pay, rewards, pens and paper
2. security needs: relaxed; open; confidential; low stress;
healthy; safe; no surprises, no threats
3. social needs: the mix of people in the group; how well
people are likely to get on; informal relationships; the
relationship with the trainer
4. recognition needs: the opportunities for the group and
individuals to do good work and be praised
5. actualisation needs: the deeper meaning the event has
for the individual and his or her development.

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WHICH LEARNING STYLE?
When you plan a training session, you will at some point
have to decide what kind of learning style to use. This will
depend on the immediate learning objective and the mix of
knowledge, skill and attitude requirements in the training.
When Burke and Day researched the effectiveness of
different learning models, - in terms of retention of
information and the changes in skills levels - they found that
behaviour modelling was the most successful learning
model.
Their ranking of different models was:
First: Behaviour modelling
Second: Multiple intelligences
Third: Open Learning
Fourth: Lecture and role play
Fifth: Lecture and discussion

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THE BEST ENVIRONMENT
The right kind of environment for an effective training
session is one which is open, relaxed and friendly.
One way to do this when trainees first arrive in the training
room is to play soft background music and place colourful
wall posters, perhaps with energising quotes, in appropriate
places around the room. Fresh-cut flowers can also be used.
Sometimes, there is little choice over your training venue. In
this case, it is the arrangement of seating that creates the
feel you want. In small groups of up to 12, horse-shoe
shaped seating circles create more openness and interaction
than desk seating. It also allows the trainer to sit with the
group rather than apart from them.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
THINKING ABOUT YOUR
TRAINEES
The trainees on a course are your raw material as well as
your customers. You need to get to know them well. Some
of the things you need to think about are:
1. the size of the group
2. their background, experience, level of intelligence and
current jobs
3. any differences in status, sex, age
4. the reasons trainees believe they are present: to learn?
to be punished? as a reward?
5. their motivation and level of anxiety
6. what they expect to get out of the course.
"If you spend even one tenth as much time thinking about
and describing your students as you do thinking about your
subject, you will develop a powerful tool for ensuring the
effectiveness of your instruction." (Robert Mager)

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THE PRIDE HURDLE
Trainers have to be sensitive to just how some people may
feel undertaking training. For some, particularly those in
senior positions in an organisation, the training course may
overturn the power relationships they have been used to.
These include the following feelings:
1. they may not be comfortable sitting with others in a
group over whom they normally have authority and
status
2. they may not be comfortable deferring to a trainer
3. they may be committed to the knowledge, systems and
structures that helped them get where they are that
they now have to put to one side.
When trainers are sensitive to the vulnerability of trainees,
they can use this as a springboard to renewed power:
vulnerability + passivity = weakness
vulnerability + admission = strength

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
PLANNING THE CONTENT
Every person who gets involved in planning training knows
that no matter how well a course is prepared, even down to
the last minute, it rarely goes exactly to plan. A course
should have its own momentum developing in response to
the needs of trainees. The prepared plan is there to fall back
on.
This is how to keep a plan alive:
1. break the job down into manageable training chunks
2. sequence them in the most logical order
3. prioritise the content into what is essential, desirable
and nice to learn; concentrate on what is essential
4. constantly ask yourself how the content and what you
are doing helps to achieve the objective
5. leave room for intuition, improvisation,
experimentation and spontaneous fun.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
SEQUENCING
The order in which the material in a training course is
presented depends on the choices you make about the
following options:
Concept Or Experience? Some trainers prefer to outline
theory first and then practise it; others prefer practise first
and then theory.
Familiar Or Unfamiliar? A course can move from known to
unknown territory or start with unknown material and seek
connections.
Easy Or Difficult? A course can progress from what is easy
to what is difficult, or throw trainees in at the deep end first.
Big Picture Or Steps? A course can tantalisingly build up like
a jigsaw puzzle bit by bit; or it can show the big picture first
and then break it down.

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MTL Course Topics
BREAKING THE JOB DOWN
At some point in your training programme, it is likely that
you will break a skill down into its component parts. This
may be because you want people to learn each step in a job
or to acquire bits of skills and sub-skills.
A job or skill can be broken down into the following bits:
1. steps in a sequence
2. facts, information, procedures
3. helpful knacks and shortcuts
4. tips and tricks which others have found useful
5. key points to look out for.
Knacks and tips are good ways to remember important
information. When novice parachute jumpers take their first
practice jumps, they are told to keep their knees together
when they land. One way to ensure they do is to imagine a
£1 coin wedged between their buttocks.

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MTL Course Topics
KNACKS AND TIPS
The following example of how to answer a written customer
complaint shows the value of knacks and tips:
1. Read the letter
Knack: avoid a defensive reaction.
2. Identify the issues
Tip: take written notes.
3. Pinpoint the problem
Trick: sift out the problem from the moans.
4. Check your procedures
Tip: check with someone who knows.
5. Decide on your reply
Knack: see it from their point of view.
6. Draft the reply
Tip: use a tone of courtesy.
7. Proof-read the letter before sending it
Tip: Be prompt.

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DESIGNING AN EXERCISE
The resourceful trainer builds up a repertoire of exercises
which can be used or adapted on any course. To top up this
resource and develop material specifically for the needs of a
new course, new exercises should be regularly designed.
These are the steps in designing a new exercise:
Step 1: Think of the outcome you want; eg to get trainees to
use open questions.
Step 2: Brainstorm the possibilities in a free and dreamlike
way. One approach is to use the framework of the multiple
intelligences to design different exercise styles.
Step 3: Critically assess each idea according to how feasible
it is.
Step 4: Check in your mind how the exercise might work,
where it could go wrong, whether it helps the trainees.
Step 5: Practise it yourself on colleagues or in a pilot
programme.

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MTL Course Topics
A GOOD EXERCISE
The criteria for designing a good training exercise are that...
1. it is possible to do
2. trainees can be successful
3. they learn something
4. there is at least one overt outcome that they are
conscious of
5. there is at least one covert outcome that they are not
consciously aware of. This can be learning about
themselves and how they relate to others in the group.
6. it stretches them just beyond their present comfort
zone
7. it allows some generalization to other situations.
Because some of these criteria can only be assessed at the
time of training itself, many good exercises are best
developed spontaneously or shortly before they are run.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
CONSTRAINTS
We rarely have a completely free hand in designing training,
and usually have to compromise the ideal plan to fit in with
the constraints of available resources such as time and
location.
Sometimes the difficulties and constraints can be material
for training itself; for example, when some people are not
able to be released from their jobs, using this situation to
ask why the organisation does not rate training very highly.
Constraints include: time available and length of training
sessions; training material; trainer's skill and expertise; the
availability of experts; the numbers allowed on the session;
the room to train; intelligence, experience and motivation of
the trainees; attitude of management towards the session.

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MTL Course Topics
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
The support of management in running training sessions can
be a valuable bonus or a serious constraint depending on
which of the five levels you get:
1. Bless this course. The manager allows the course to go
ahead but doesn't attend, ("No need to. I know all that
stuff.")
2. Ceremonial kick-off. The manager is there at the start but
then goes away.
3. Encouragement from a distance. The manager gives
apparent support to the course but keeps well away,
perhaps citing pressure of work.
4. Welcome back. The manager recognises the changes in
staff when they return, coaches them personally and
reinforces the learning points from the course.
5. Lead by example. The manager attends the course,
delivers some of the programmes and is available
throughout the course for advice and support.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
ADMINISTRATION
Running a training event smoothly includes planning the
out-of-course administrative work.
This covers three areas:
1. Contact: Contact with trainees before a course means:
nomination and billing
sending out joining arrangements
notifying trainees of pre-course work.
2. Materials: Materials for a course might run to: handouts;
overheads; photocopies for each trainee; equipment;
stationery.
3. Course administration: Course administration means
arranging, organising and checking on...
• arrivals, late attenders, absentees
• meal and refreshment arrangements
• record of attendance or performance
• sending out certificates at the end.

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Training Skills
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn