7 Keys to Designing Workplace Training For Successful on Job Performance

1. Assume Your Trainee Is Ignorant And Unskilledsection and the overall plan for the instruction. They're
Don't fret. I mean ignorant and unskilled in the subjectalso entitled to know when and how their progress
of your instruction. If you don't adopt this approach,and overall competence will be measured. And they
your planning will be unbalanced. Some trainees willshould be told of the rewards of showing competence.
miss things they don't know and can't do while others6. Reward Knowledge And Competence
will be bored by instruction in knowledge and skills theyTrainees should be able to move through the program
already have. Assuming ignorance and lack of skillat their own pace provided they demonstrate
enables you to test trainees so that they only receivepredetermined knowledge and competence. The
the instruction they need.sooner trainees are operating successfully on the job,
2. Instruction Cannot Survive Poor Or Inadequatethe better.Those opportunities and benchmarks should
Preparationbe included in the design before the training
The best presenter will fail if his or her preparation iscommences.
poor. Presentation skills may get you by in the7. The Success of Instruction Can Be Measured In
classroom but not in the workplace. TraineeOnly One Way
competence is what's demanded at work. If traineesDemonstrable, continuous on job competence is the
can't display competence, all the presentation tricksonly effective measure of the success of on job
and sleight of hand won't help.training. And those measures must be determined
3. Always Design Instruction "In Reverse"before the instruction commences. The instructor's
When designing instruction never, ever "start at theopinion doesn't really matter. Nor does demonstrated
beginning and end at the finish". Start with measurablecompetence in the classroom. If the trainee cannot
competencies to be displayed at the end of thedemonstrate the skills and knowledge on the job, the
instruction: the "learning outcomes" if you like. Worktraining is inadequate. The trainee hasn't failed. The
back to the start. Design on job instruction in theinstruction has. And there's a good case to be made
reverse order to which you'll present it.for saying the instructor has failed.
4. Instructors Must Commit To Trainee On JobConclusion
CompetenceCareful planning is the key to successful on job
Instructors and on job trainers must put their "moneyinstruction and training. And the depth of planning will
where their mouth is". That means they must statedetermine the quality of presentation. We are over
clearly, before instruction commencesconcerned with presentation. It's important. But what
- What trainees will be able to do at the end of thehappens before the training or instruction commences
trainingis what matters most.
- What trainees will know at the end of the training.Summary
And those outcomes should be stated in clearlyThis article is about preparing on job workplace training:
measurable terms.training leading to on job competence. It's not
5. Trainees Deserve To Have A Mapconcerned with classrooms or presentation skills. You
Before instruction commences, supply a map tomight be the best classroom presenter in the world. If
trainees. They deserve to know the learningyour training design is inadequate, your training or
outcomes, the timing, the structures, the stages orinstruction is unlikely to lead to on job competence.