Cairo Okba

What makes a Successful Trainer?

Training is the process of enhancing the skills, capabilities and knowledge of individuals to fulfil a
particular role or perform a specific set of tasks. It moulds the thinking of participants and leads to
higher quality of performance when applied. It is crucial for any organisations development and
success as it helps to create individuals who are more efficient and productive when trained well.

To train an individual well and for an organisation to reap the benefits of training, a successful
trainer is vital.

A successful trainer, first and foremost, must have the desire to teach and impart knowledge and
skills. An individual who is invested in the development of others and enjoys helping others grow
and build upon their existing knowledge, skills and experience is more likely to achieve the best
results out of the learners.

Following this, enthusiasm from the trainer is also needed while conducting training activities. Using
body language and tone as well as deliberately increasing their own energy levels will allow a trainer
to transfer this enthusiasm over to the learners.

Organisation and preparation are important skills needed for any trainer to be successful. Learners
want a trainer who delivers training that is well structured with a logical and identifiable pathway
from beginning to end. Preparing effectively ahead of a training session will give a trainer and
learners the best chance of success, as the trainer will have considered the timings of the training
programme, prepared a range of exercises, activities and training materials as well as developed
ways to effectively measure the success of the training through action plans and performance
measurement tools.

When delivering training, a trainer must have enough expertise to be able to competently explain
and demonstrate the subject matter as well as have the necessary communication skills to convey
understanding to the learners. An example would be ensuring that technical concepts and complex
language are explained in a way that does not confuse the learners.

A sense of humour or the ability to entertain can help transform dull or tedious content into an
engaging and fun experience for learners and enable them to better retain the information as well as
reduce the boredom and lack of attention that a learner may experience covering subject matter
that is not necessarily the most interesting or exciting.

Building an environment of trust and respect is important for a successful trainer as learners will not
engage if they do not respect the trainer. Giving the learners opportunities to be involved in the
teaching and voice their opinions will help to create a positive learning environment where open
honest discussions can take place and rapport and respect can be fostered.

Patience is also important for any successful trainer as there will be times where learners struggle to
gain an understanding and the trainer’s continued assistance will be required. Trainers will need a to
be flexible especially when faced with an issue such as this because a trainer should be able to
accommodate the learning styles and needs of different learners.

Ultimately, it takes all of the above skills to be for a trainer to successful a and facilitate a learning
environment that arouses curiosity, increases competency and builds the expertise and confidence
of the learners and gives them the gratification in accomplishment.
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Adult Learning

The process of engaging adult learners in a learning experience is known as Adult Learning. Adult
learning can be difficult for a few reasons such as lack of time, lack of confidence and self-doubt,
financial barriers, contradiction to their pre-existing ideas and notions and lack of support.

There are many techniques and theories and how to effectively train adults as there are big
differences in terms of how children and adults learn. Due to this, different techniques must be used
in order to make training effective for adults.

Adult learning differs from child learning in a number of ways. In order for adults to learn effectively,
training needs to be designed in a way that meets the following core principles of adult learning:

1. Self- directed:
• Adults decide for themselves what is important to learn.
• Adults will engage with training because they either want or need it.

2. Practical Learning:
• Adults learn through direct experience therefore; their training must include
interactive and practical participation and offer techniques and methodologies that
can be immediately implemented.
• Adult learners will engage in training because a problem needs to be solved.
Developing and practicing skills in a controlled environment allows them to build
confidence and competency in new tasks that prepare them to act autonomously
outside of the training environment. The more an adult learner can practice, the
more impact the training will have.

3. Relevance:
• The training must be meaningful and relevant to the adult learners. They need to
know the benefits, values and purposes of the training. If they cannot grasp the
purpose or value, they will be reluctant to engage with the training.

4. Experience:
• Adult learners need to be able to relate the training to their experiences. Training
language and materials need to include context and situations they can relate to, as
well as refer to their direct past experiences so they can make practical applications
of the training in real life.

5. Learning Styles:
• Adult learners need multi-sensory training methods. Training sessions need to have
appropriately proportioned delivery techniques that meet the needs of audio, visual,
reading/writing, kinaesthetic, dependent and independent learning preferences.
Cairo Okba

6. Involvement:
• Adults need to feel as though they have a sense of responsibility, control and
decision-making over their learning. In terms of training, this requires flexibility of
the learning situation, the learning program and most importantly, the trainer to
actively involve the participant in a way that allows them to have a degree of control
over what they do, or, in fact, how much they learn.

7. Personal Development:
• The innate, personal desires and ambitions of an adult learner need to be
considered when planning and delivering adult training. As learners get older, their
cause for participation in training often ranges from external motivations such as
getting a promotion, to internal motivations such as out of pure pleasure or interest
in a particular subject.