The principal target of every such studying session is to improve professional skills of employees, which consequently boosts productiveness of organization as a whole. Every head is well aware of it. When a company orders training, they do expect that it will improve their workers’ skills and knowledge, but will not tell you how you should organize the studying process to make it efficient. Being a real expert in the domain, you must thoroughly create your presentation. Even if you can dwell on the determined topic without any preparation for hours, don’t assume your passionate speech will be appreciated. This is not just about well-rounded explanations, but about the contact with the audience. To find it, take into account the staff training ideas below.
To teach the employers to crack severe problems start with handling the simple ones
Presentation of problematic issues should take place at the very beginning of the training course to help you engage your audience to the fullest. This way, you unite the staff around one problem. Thus, each member will know his duties and will do his best to make his contribution to meet the common goal. The target is to get rid of the barriers between the employees and to elaborate an algorithm of actions needed to succeed when they look for the solution for any other problem in real life. To engage the whole team, it is advisable to provide tasks of different complexity levels. This measure will prevent the loss of interest. Experienced workers will not lose their interest (which is usual practice when the assignment is too simple). If a task demands better skills, weak players will get lost.
Include interactive element
When choosing an approach allowing to bring better results and make the process of learning engaging, make use of interactive training ideas. Teaching employees, remember that their time for studying presupposes limitations, and you are to optimize their efforts on studying. It is only possible when your pupils are motivated and involved in the performance. They will conceive and memorize faster if you prefer game mode rather than a classic course consisting of lectures and an endless session of making useful notes.
There exist a great many techniques, which can boost your performance.
Classroom interactive training ideas
- Sharing notes. Ask your trainees to compare their notes on topic providing explanations what makes the point worth being noted (work in pairs or small groups).
- Offer your learners some disputable topic, inform them of principal rules and let them discuss the given questions without trying to influence their point of view.
- Writing stories. Divide the team into small groups and give them a task to create a story, which is connected to the discussed theme.
- Screen version of life. Divide students into groups and give them a scenario of situation they may encounter in real life. Ask them to offer continuation and final stage.
- Search for areas of implementation. Ask trainees to write down some number of areas where the acquired knowledge and skills will be useful (both those, which are related to their job and those which are not).
- Illustrate some skills without naming and let learners guess what you were showing and change the roles offering students to demonstrate some skills.
- Problem Identification. Divide students into groups and let each group write down a list of problems, which can be solved due the new knowledge they acquired.
- Word puzzle. Offer your learners a word puzzle consisting of vocabulary units, which have connection to the topic (this activity can be used both in class and as a homework task). Use the resources offering gratuitous programs for puzzle creation.
- Let your learners get acquainted with some program or issue providing them with a plan to follow consisting of strictly determined list of points. Offer students to explore them and describe. It may be just a list of issues to cover (logo, moto, and policy of the company in interconnection) or questions to find an answer (How do you consider the company’s logo? In what way is it correlated with the moto and the policy?).
Interactive training ideas for knowledge check
- Self-assessment. Ask trainees to tell you what knowledge and skills they acquired during the training and how they can influence their work (orally or in written form).
- True/False activity. Prepare a list of true-false statements and offer your trainees to express their point of view as for their correctness. Let them explain their opinion, then offer correct answer and discuss why it is true.
- Top learned concepts. Ask the learners to say aloud the ideas, concepts, terms they’ve learned during this training session (is well applied at the end of the lesson).
- Thumb exercise. Create a quiz with a set of yes/no questions related to the topic and ask the audience to respond showing the finger up or down.
Resources like Designing Digitally supply trainers of varied areas of study with multiple games compatible with iOS and Windows platforms and those available in a browser.
Make training fun
Have you been a student? Students know how monotonous lessons can kill interest to the subject of discussion and the lecturer. Further, they choose to address to some coursework writers to help them deal with the papers for this subject. Avoid this mistake! To make certain your training will not become an example of this kind, let your audience have fun during the course and have fun yourself! No matter how substantial your preparation is if your material is dry, you will fail to get in contact with trainees. A former student, you will not torture your audience this way, do you?
To make your performance stand out from the crowd, represent your material in some funny manner though without crossing the line. Choosing learning approaches, try to vary the methods. One of fun training ideas in this concern offers to use most weird, funny and extraordinary examples. Having memorized the only example, a trainee will easily “reconstruct” the rule.
The jokes that do good for one group of people will not work with another one. Sense of humour is very subjective, and you need to take precautions not to offend any member of the team when trying to make your presentation most engaging and funny. Get acquainted with your audience. Learn about their age and interests (if possible). If this is your first meeting with this audience, try first putting your jokes to the proof – offer several of them to watch the reaction. Fun training ideas for employees can only bring the desired results when they are appreciated.
Adjust your plan of training to the peculiarities of your audience
To make the training effective, you badly need to offer your learners some freedom in this concern. Due to flexible hours of training, every busy employee will find some spare minute to spend on studying. Every person performs tasks at own pace. When you offer your learners to choose the place and the time of the lesson, you make them more motivated.
Get ready for technical failures
Having prepared a technical base for your efficient training session, you still can face one of the unpredictable technical problems during the lesson. It can prevent implementing any set of interactive training ideas. To make your training efficient despite any technical troubles, make sure you have some plan “B.” Endless attempts to restart the program will bother your audience to death and nip their interest and motivation in the bud. Consider taking a pause and address to the specialist to solve the trouble or postpone the lesson if you can’t do it. Make certain your audience will test their technical devices before the training. Remind them of this necessity beforehand.
Encourage high achievers
Just as highly professional performance merits wage increase, achievements in studying should be properly acknowledged. Learners who show good results acquiring new information and contribute to their professional baggage should be awarded. First of all, such step illustrates that the lessons are not just formal and both the company and the trainer care about the professional advancement and that the target to make training fun is not the only one. Such prize will also serve an encouragement for those who are not yet motivated enough. Thus, all staff will be aimed at acquiring maximum useful information during the training, which will boost their work.
Seek for interaction
Every good teacher knows that both pupils and instructor teach one another during the studying process. At the very beginning of the training, inform your audience of the importance of such interaction. Say that your target is not only to deliver them some portion of knowledge capable of contributing to their career growth. Tell them that you are aimed at making their learning process most comfortable. Note that you too are cooperative and will gladly boost your performance. Offer them to give feedbacks as to the most efficient methods, games, and techniques and those, which don’t give much.
Guest Contributor: Helen Birk is freelance writer, she is passionate about writing and creating efficient content. Helen is fond of new ideas and always ready to share them with readers.
