Customised In-house Training Courses
One of the main benefits of booking in-house (on-site) training, as against sending your people off to a training centre to attend a pubic course, is that your training can be customised to match the specific needs of your organisation. When you book in-house training courses, be sure to make this clear to the training company and give them a full briefing on your requirements. Produce a list of essential topics that need to be covered after discussing the matter with the staff members who will be attending the course, their manager or someone in your company who already has the skills the trainees will be acquiring.
Send examples of your work to the training company, before the training, so that they have a good idea of the kind of documents your guys will need to create or edit (Make sure that you remove any sensitive or confidential information!).
Every good software training session offers users opportunities to practice the skills they are learning. Ask the training company to include your company’s documents into all practical exercises given to delegates during the training. For example, if your trainees are learning how to create corporate brochures, have the trainer show them how to create pages from some of your typical brochures during the course to verify that everyone is mastering the most important techniques.
It is important to find a suitable room where you can realistically conduct a training session and where the trainees can focus on learning without distraction, discomfort or interruption. If your company does not have a proper training room then a meeting room can be used. Delegates should be able to see the trainer from their seat without having to crane their necks or twist uncomfortably. Each trainee should also have exclusive use of a laptop or workstation for the duration of the course and enough space to operate a keyboard and mouse.
The appropriate software version should be loaded on each delegate’s machine and, ideally, each person should be using the same version of the software. For example, running a Microsoft Word course with some delegates using Word 2003 and others 2007 would be a disaster, since the two versions have such significant differences.)
A workstation or laptop fixed to a screen projector will enable the trainer to demonstrate the software efficiently. This is especially useful with a large group. If your company does not have one, they can be hired for around 25 per day. The training room should also have a whiteboard and pens.
For your training to be effective, delegates must be available for the duration of the course and must be off-limits to other members of staff. Ideally, they should be treated as absent from the office until their course ends. Equally, they should be motivated to do the training and agree that it will benefit them and that acquiring the new skills provided by the training will help them to work more effectively.