In the easy and middling cases part of your work as a trainer has been done for you. In what follows, therefore, we will consider how a professional trainer would deal with a tough job.

Training's Aims - lower and higher

By the end of a training session the knowledge, skills and/or attitudes (KSA) of the trainees will have changed in some desirable direction. As a professional trainer you may be required and/or may wish to aim lower or higher in this regard.

The lower level aim is that the trainee will have eaten the fish which was on offer ie they will have learned something very particular and will have completed the assigned course work.

The higher level aim is that the trainee will have learned how to fish (ie will have learned how to learn) as part of a fishing crew (ie she will have learned how to work effectively as part of a group).

Various lower level aims will be achieved in the process of achieving the higher level ones, therefore, in what follows we will consider how the professional trainer would deal with higher level aims in a tough job.

The five main competencies of a professional trainer

A professional trainer is one who earns her living through training - it is her business. As such it is not enough that she be a good trainer, she must also have a good head for business, especially if she is in business on her own. The five main competency areas are set out with some elaborations in the following table:

	Systematically reflecting on practice (individually or in a group context)
	Experimenting and researching (treats all professional actions as 'experiments')
	Addressing the literature (written and electronic, published and grey)
	Networking - to keep abreast of ongoing developments

The Training Business    The Five Competency Areas

The Five competency areas

Given that the training of trainers programme lasts for only one day we cannot cover everything. There thus follows an explanation of how we will steer a course through the field of possibilities. Note that the main focus is on the professional aspects of workshop organisation - especially training methods.

Business Skills

It is assumed that the participants in this course do not intend to be full-time, professional trainers. This area of competence will not therefore be considered. Those with particular interests should address the relevant literature eg

Self Development

The motto here would be 'Do not unto others unless you have already done it to yourself'. Before using some of the know-yourself and self-improvement ideas in this book on trainees, try them on yourself. Look in particular at the section on 'Professional Formation' and fill out the xxx questionnaire.

Materials Production

The participants on this course will be presenting the 6 day course on xxx for which advance materials have already been prepared. This area of competence will not therefore be considered. Participants may, however, reflect on the materials which have been prepared for this course and for the 6 day course. Look in particular at how the content is sequenced and signposted and at how much 'space' has been left on each page.

The participatory production of materials during the workshops will be considered as part of the professional aspects of workshop organisation.

Workshop Organisation

It was Napoleon who said that an army marches on its stomach - what are the feeding arrangements for the workshop? And trainees cannot stick charts on the wall if there is nothing to stick them with - and they won't even be there is they do not get the invitations on time. Such nitty gritty logistical details can make or break a workshop. We will be looking at some systematic checklists.

The professional aspects of workshop organisation are the main focus of this one-day course. We will consider the six main aspects of this ie Contextualisation, Aims, Objectives, Content, Methods & Materials, and Feedback (Monitoring and Evaluation). Given that the first four of these have already been designed for the six day course, we will focus mainly on the last two.

Workplace Visiting

There are no definite plans as yet for the trainers to make follow up visits to the trainees. This might, however, come to pass in the future. We will thus look briefly at what might be involved in terms of support/ facilitation/ counselling visits on the one hand and/or appraisal/ assessment/ evaluation visits on the other.

And Study Skills

We will deal with study skills as part of the 'methods' section in the professional aspects of workshop organisation. Only sloppy, lazy, hypocritical, second-rate trainers will preach them without first having practised them!

The Training Business    The Five Competency Areas