Table of Contents

What’s the value of a train the trainer session?

Just training someone how to present doesn't mean they'll present any better than they used to.
value

One of my favorite topics to design and deliver is presentation skills. When people present better, they have the opportunity to change the world.

Over the past few years, as I reflect on these sessions, I’ve begun to question the value. Is a presentation skills or train the trainer session worth the investment of time and money? Too often, when I peek in on what people are doing after attending such a session, I would have to say: no, the investment of time and money wasn’t worth it.  

The single biggest reason I feel this way is the same reason that many other training programs – from sales training to leadership development and all sorts of other topics – are also poor investments of time and money. After the training wraps up, people go back to their desks or their offices, and they play catch-up on emails and phone calls and other work. Any enthusiasm they had for applying newly learned skills fades away as the demands of their day-to-day job take hold.

Recently I had an opportunity to design a workshop and try to reverse this pattern. InsideNGO recently asked me to help put together a follow-up course to their foundational Training of Trainers program.

There are two things I like about this project:

  1. It’s completely online. This means that content can be fed to participants in their natural environment – at their desks, during the work day. Principles of adult learning and key concepts to engage people will be in front of them during the natural flow of their work day.
  2. It supports real-world application. While foundational training programs are necessary, all too often that’s where the learning stops, and learners are asked to go back on their own and perhaps try to maybe apply something they learned and hope they get it right. This course will challenge participants to put their foundational knowledge of presentation skills to use on a real-world presentation. Participants will receive support and feedback from course instructors and their peers in order to continue to build and advance their presentation skill set. After all, if you don’t use it you lose it.

If you’ve been presenting for a few years and want to sharpen your skills or if you just want to engage with some others who are at the same point in their training delivery journey, feel free to check it out and see if this might be something you’d be interested in.

Whether you’re relatively new or extremely experienced in the world of learning and development, I’d love to hear from you, too. What are some strategies you’ve put in place to boost the odds that participants will apply what you’ve taught them?

Instructor-Led Training Resources

These are some of our favorite resources to support everyone involved with instructor-led training.

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

The Role of Co-facilitators

Co-facilitators play an important role in a training workshop. The most obvious benefit is that when you co-facilitate, you get a break from leading the

18 Instructor-led Training Activities

Engaging, intentional, face-to-face and virtual instructor-led training activities can make the difference between a session that helps learners to apply new skills or knowledge and one that falls flat.

Articles Similar to What’s the value of a train the trainer session?

facilitator competency rubric
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

John Crook on role play
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Is this the world’s most effective role play?

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today’s podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.