A design document is like a training plan contract. A design document should be used as a tool to capture and refine your initial thoughts, align them with stakeholders and to get sign off on the plan in order to avoid unnecessary re-work. Use this template, customize it to your needs and good luck with your training initiative! This template is beneficial for especially for trainers, instructional designers and anyone who needs to align a training plan with stakeholders.

1. Training Design Document Template
Insert project name
Insert date
Training design document template by Iida Hokkanen is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
About this Document
There are many different methods to design training. This document is a template to be used as a
guide. As with all templates, use it to fit your circumstances and needs.
Each section contains a description of how it is meant to be used. The description is enclosed in
brackets [ ] and is intended to be replaced with your own text.
This template contains all of the elements you should find in a training program and it is recommended
to use every element for a complete training.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About this Document.................................................................................................................................. 1
Table of Contents........................................................................................................................................ 1
Training need .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Stakeholders/SMEs/Sponsors/Trainers ...................................................................................................... 2
Training goal................................................................................................................................................ 2
Overview of continuous learning strategy.................................................................................................. 2
Workshop objectives .................................................................................................................................. 2
Workshop outline ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Activity descriptions.................................................................................................................................... 3
Content........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Evaluation.................................................................................................................................................... 4

2. Training Design Document Template 2
Insert Project Name Version #
Training need
[Insert a brief description of the validated training need.]
Stakeholders/SMEs/Sponsors/Trainers
[List people who will review and sign-off on the training design before you move forward to develop
the training]
Name Title/Job Role Sign off? Training Role
Training goal
[List the performance goal that will be different after the training.]
Overview of continuous learning strategy
[Include a description of the training activities that will fall into the Engage, Develop and Sustain
phases.]
Workshop objectives
[List the learning objectives that describe what the learners will be able to do after the training. The
objectives should align to achieving the goal of the training.]

3. Training Design Document Template 3
Insert Project Name Version #
Workshop outline
[Include an outline that describes the flow of the workshop, activities included and timing.]
Outline Timing
Introduction
 Welcome
 Objectives
 Agenda review
10 min
Activity 1 – break out groups 30 min
Topic 1 15 min
Activity 2 – individual 5 min
Break 10 min
Activity 3 – in triads 30 min
Debrief and review 15 min
Close and call to action 5 min
Total workshop time 120 min
Activity descriptions
[Describe the activities in the training. For example]
Activity 1- Prework review
 Participants will be divided into three teams
 Each team is given a topic from the prework reading assignment
 The teams will have 10 minutes to prepare a 3-5 min presentation about the topic
 Each team will give their presentation to the full class
 Large group debrief

4. Training Design Document Template 4
Insert Project Name Version #
Activity 2 – 1 minute reflection paper
ETC….
Content
[List the headlines of the content covered in the training. For example:]
Topic 1:
 Sub topic
 Sub topic
Evaluation
[How will learning be measured and the impact of the training evaluated?]
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3