Executive Guidance

Trainer Blog

In House Expert v Training Expert

One of my big bug bears is how companies dilute the value of training by getting non trainers to deliver important training interventions.  Here is the scenario, Bert is the company expert on those widgets and we have ten new staff members we need to train up in widgets, so we will get Bert to train them. 

Oh dear, if Bert liked cars and knew all about them, would you let Bert drive the company van if he had not been trained and passed a test to drive. Why treat training any differently?

There are two options here, firstly give the expert additional knowledge so they can deliver the training, or find a good trainer and work with them to understand the widget process. Either way the knowledge being exchanged will be so much better for the process, and the company will benefit greatly, but the worst option of all is the trot out the in house expert and let them deliver the training.

I recently did some Consultation with a big client who had made the decision to deliver a refresher training programme to 2000 staff on their core business.  When the training was announced it was made clear to the staff that it was compulsory for all staff and 2000 places were advertised to the work force. At the start there was quite a flurry for places which showed the staff were keen to get involved, but once the training started that enthusiasm quickly waned and excuses quickly came to the fore, until the training just withered and faded on the vine.  A typical comment was that the course was ‘rubbish.’

A short time afterwards, I delivered a PTLLS course and one of the trainers from the course came on it.  Halfway through she said to me, “Now I know why no-one came on my course, I am going to make some changes.”  We worked together to give the course some proper structure, and using the skills she had learnt on the PTLLS course started the training programme again.  You don’t need me to tell you that attendance grew and before long the training was being delivered to full class rooms.

It may seem the cheapest option, to use the in house expert, but it really does no-one any favours, particularly the in house expert who gets very exposed. 

Training is not a place for an untrained non expert, make the investment to get the return.

Here at Executive Guidance we deliver training to ‘Train the Trainers’ and can help your in-house-expert deliver quality learning for your workforce.  Call Avril in the office and we would be delighted to help you, or use the Contact Us page.