TRAINING THE TRAINERS

CHANGE IS PERMANENT, FLEXIBILITY IS A SKILL, ADAPTABILITY IS FOR THE TRAINED

Training is the backbone for the growth of an organisation.  Changing according to demand of the situation is more valid in today’s global world.  Institutions look forward for the ability to adapt, learn and facilitate learning among its employees.  These qualities has taken a lead in the 21^st century job skills.  It is well accepted that the ability to adapt and learn is not so natural among its people.  ‘Fear of the unknown’ is what dominates during the process of ‘change’.  It is here that ‘trainers’ play their magic.  The question which dominates in such a scenario are

·         ‘Are the trainers natural or well trained?’

·         How are trainers trained?

Obviously, not all abilities are natural some are trained and practiced.

Trainers are generally quick learners who are able to connect and correlate their working atmosphere to the learned techniques.  Training them should focus on the direction of the instructional flow.

DIRECTED FLOW OF INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDE RIGHT DIRECTION IN GROWTH

Formal training sessions do not include all the nitty gritties of practical experiences. The main reason for this is the ‘lack of time’ and ‘practicality of the situation’. However, it becomes essential for the trainer to design and train on the possible problem areas.  Trainers carry, load of experiences and expertise on their working platform. Generally, they are excellent communicators and negotiators.  Training them would require the super trainer to concentrate on the policy matters and implementation concerns. 

Organization policies need to be strategized in a manner that it sustains until it penetrates the grassroots. The organisation design on training should emphasize on the vision statement and set the achievable and deliverable based on this statement.

1. Identify quick learners and risk takers:

Selection for the trainers is based on qualities like – Good communicator, negotiator, avid learner and risk taker.  These are most essential qualities during and after the training process.

2. Set your objective:

Organisation sets its objective as its ‘vision and mission’, the statements are filtered and applied for the working process and procedures.  The training need to focus on the organizational objective rather that path and procedures.  The deliverable and achievable become the process of attaining such objective.

3. Train and train:

Established norms are then trained as per the process.  It is key to understand that all learners do not have the same level of learning.  To achieve practicality of the learnt, it is a must to focus on individual learning ability and adaptability.  Making mistakes are always part of learning, providing scope for making mistakes allow training to become successful.

4. Refine and allow practice:

Demonstration of the trained skill is essential.  With demonstration, the ability of the trainer to handle various practical situations is well understood.  The objective of training can be reiterated and allowed to follow as and when diversions happen.  Remember, ‘Unlearn to Relearn’ needs time and practice.

5. Reflect on trained

Training does not end with the training phase.  It is a continuous process.  During the sessions, and after the sessions, feedback is essential for the trainer to improve in areas of delivery and expertise.  Once the process is implemented the analyzed feedback of it gives an immense ‘know-how’ of the extent of the validity of the implementation path and procedures.

Support during implementation is as essential as the training itself.  It is during the starting phase the ‘hesitation towards implementation’ is observed.  On time action is what is needed to push the work towards the rolling phase.

Training has become an integral part of every organisation.  It is now more than ever the requirement of trainers is in demand.  The success of every organisation is very much depended upon the understanding of its employees on the ‘Organisation philosophy’.  Working towards this goal becomes possible when the trainers are well equipped with the process that determines its achievement.

Providing scope for improvement in all the nitty-gritties are essential to accept and adapt to change.  Trainers and the trainees are to be made aware of the same as, ‘Change is permanent and is here to stay’.

DATA ANALYSIS FOR DEVELOPING COMPETENCIES

‘Data is the core towards tomorrow’s global revolution’.

‘DATA’ is generated in every process.  The multitudes of data generated are accumulating and companies are racing towards ‘data science’ with technology as a medium to analyse and predict future directions.  Education is not an exception in this scenario.  Assessments conducted in the year and throughout the formal education span of an individual accumulates data on his/her learning.  The correct analysis and feedback on such data has become mandatory in this learning process to measure progress.  The complete meaning of such data analysis gives the process and the individual a definition and a goal. 

When and how to analyse?

Analysis of data happens only when assessments are set with proper blue print.  For example,let us consider the CBSE blue print for Science as given. (Source: www.cbse.nic.in) 

The ‘typology of questions’ indicates the types of question designed for the exam, specifically ‘Knowledge based’ indicates the remembering capacity of the individual students.  ‘Understanding’ recognises the individual’s ability to rewrite in their own words or simply ability to comprehend while ‘Application’ takes a step further the understanding to apply the learnt to new scenarios or recognise the happenings and relate to learned.  ‘HOTS’ category allows students to compare, reorganise their understanding and correlate different pieces of information.  Judging or justify the outcome is rather a unique problem solving ability which helps build critical thinking among the learner in the last part ‘Inferential or Evaluative’. 

How can such paper be analysed?

The question setter sets according to the blue print and needs to allocate the questions based on the category to which they belong.  Core competencies already described in the blue print can be associated to questions relevant to the categories specified and the scored marks can be analysed based on these competencies category wise through the many software’s that are available in the market.  Today the options of LMS provides the scope for analysing such multitudes of competencies.

What benefits does this bring?

In the education world where competencies like ‘knowledge’, ‘skills’, ‘attitudes’ and ‘values’ hold importance, the above segregation of performance can provide ‘right feedback’ which allows not only the learner but also the instructor to focus on ‘the real areas of development’.  It is important to set the assessment framework to achieve the larger goal in a step wise process.  The process applicable for the classroom per year can be designed as given below.

Every period evaluation need not focus on all core competencies.  The focus on developing knowledge and understanding needs to be the goal initially which should be evaluated and developed during formative assessments.  The analysis and synthesis focus need to be developed during the ‘Unit tests’ conducted during the middle of the term. Data analysis and feedback on competencies from unit tests provide a pattern of learning behaviour of the individual.  The term end data analysis should focus on analysis and reinforcement of all the four (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes and Values) core areas of individual development.  Since, ‘Developing habits are matter of practice with regular reinforcement’.

The performance analysis based on individual score cards allows the instructor and the learner to understand the ‘deficiency gaps’.  The gap does not build in a day, the space begins to set from the period where the ‘base knowledge’ was targeted.  To understand and help, teachers need technology support which saves time for developing a better monitoring system.

Sorting, Reading and Identifying misfit data is rapidly developing as a new ‘career zone’.  Teachers have been doing this to help students build a better future for years.  Equipping them with a better technical knowledge to make their work easier will allow them to spend more time on developing a better learner because….

‘The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.’ – Alexandra. K. Trenfor.