With technology slowly taking over the workplace and people urgently needing to acquire new skills, the training industry is booming. This provides a huge opportunity for training providers to hone in and understand best practices to market and sell into this space.
So what makes a training company stand out from the crowded market and be successful? We have put together the top 7 things you should ALWAYS do as a training provider:
Be flexible with your schedule
Everyone learns differently – some people learn better in the morning whereas others prefer the late hours. Alongside different schedules and preferences, it’s important to have as many options available as possible for your delegates. Offering your training on different days, times and formats can make a huge difference to the number of sign-ups you see. Mix it up and give your learners various options; they will thank you later!
Shorten the duration of your training
You know it yourself – sitting in a training room (or on Zoom) for days on end, can be mind-numbing. Like all of us, your learners, too, have busy lives and full-time jobs to go to and families to look after. It can sometimes be hard for them to find time to take a week out to attend training. Try and condense your courses from 5 days into 3, and keep it short and sweet. It’s important to avoid boredom and burnout from happening; after all, your delegates won’t be taking in any information if they are bored and staring out the window.
Provide virtual and F2F options
With the world changing over the past couple of years, so has the delivery of training. Face-to-face courses were always the go-to option, but with technology taking over and pandemics enabling us to see the world differently, virtual training has taken its place. Keeping up with current trends is important, so embrace the change and offer online options to help generate a wider audience. You can reach learners all around the world this way, which you were not able to do with in-person training. it’s a win-win!
Encourage your delegates to network and collaborate
Creating a sense of community is important for your learners – it helps to make the training more engaging and fun. Encouraging them to interact and learn from one another will foster nourishing learning experiences, and even better, enable them to make new friends. They will then be able to continue the conversations long after the training has ended, and will therefore keep your brand top of mind.
Round up from the previous day’s training
Taking in lots of information in a short period of time can be overwhelming. Start each of your sessions with a recap of the previous day’s session to refresh their memories and get back into a learning mindset. Try not to assign overnight homework so your delegates can leave the training and let their brain absorb all the key information, and prepare for another day of learning!
Avoid singling out a delegate
Constantly referencing one of your learners because you happen to know they are good in a topic area is guaranteed to embarrass that person and alienate the rest of your audience. You want to keep it to group discussions and let everyone have their input. This way everyone will have their say and you will most probably find out some very interesting things about each of them! The quiet ones who rarely put their hand up due to shyness often have the loudest minds, as a famous quote states, and can add incredible value to discussions. Make them feel comfortable by getting everyone involved.
Enforce good time keeping
Running to a schedule and finishing the training on time is important, it shows that you respect your delegates’ time and presence. Time is money, and neither you as a trainer nor your learners have time to waste. Many of your learners may have childcare or work commitments that they need to get to, so it’s important to keep this in mind. Why not finish up 10 minutes early and offer everyone the chance to join you for an informal coffee or chat to round up the day!
