Workshop “Success Profiles for Trainers”

Wilfried Jacobs (DWD), wilfried.jacobs@dwd.de

1.    Background

For successful training not only software or training material of high standard are necessary but also eligible trainers. It is a big challenge to find trainers who are prepared and able to deliver training accordingly. The WMO-Paper No 1114 “Guidelines for Trainers in Meteorological, Hydrological and Climate Service” is already very helpful. However, checklists for assessing trainers and persons who intend to work as trainer are strongly needed. The goal of this workshop was to prepare a list of challenges, required competencies and attitudes that can be used as an input for a success profile for trainers. Different roles (teaching, training management, both) and different training situations (distant training, blended) were discussed.






2.    Results

a)    Challenges

Although many well-known statements were found it made sense to consider them before discussing the personal attributes and competencies.

• For self-study clear instructions, aims and objectives are necessary and the trainer should avoid the feeling of isolation;
• During live presentations a compromise between the schedule and flexibility is necessary. A further challenge is to have a plan B in the case of technical problems;
•  Because online-training (self-study and online presentation) is in principle possible with hundreds of students a big challenge for trainers is to accommodate with many participants, especially if contributions in fora or home work has to be considered. To give all support is one of the biggest challenge and very time consuming.
• For blended courses an according link/bridge between the online and the classroom part should be achieved. At the beginning some resistance between trainers and students may happen.
• For all (self-study, online presentation and blended) the challenge is to have enough personal and budget in order to develop and to monitor the material that has to be also logical and consistent. The challenges in relation to pedagogic are manifold: Despite the presentation style the motivation, listening to students, pace, giving feedback also the knowledge of the audience and the different cultural backgrounds are crucial. A further challenge is to be aware in recent developments of media. Additionally, a training support officer is needed for overcoming the technical issues. In relation to the training organization the challenges exist to find experts for teaching and supporting, to get the required budget, to advocate for needs and to provide marketing by announcing a training event or by finding sponsors.

      b)  Competencies and personal attributes

No training roles have been distinguished.

• Pedagogic / personality: Important attributes are competence in communication, and in engaging people (ability to make the training attractive, narrative and rhetoric skills). Trainers should be empathic, tactful and respectful, emotional intelligent, honest and reliable. Also creativity, curiosity, flexibility, agility of thoughts and a good understanding of their role in combination with availability and responsivity are important. Trainers and managers have to be able to work in a team and to work under pressure.
•  Even if a training support officer is available the trainer and the training manager should have technical competencies (Learning Management Systems, media in order to select the according teaching method).
• Expertise (good and current knowledge) is very important for trainers. However, also the manager should have a good overview.
• A high competence in organizing is required for both trainers and training managers. Whereas the trainer has mainly to organize the training event the training manager needs also competencies in planning training from a strategic point of view, in organizing the budget and the personal and in handling service-orientated.

c)    Conclusions

During this workshop many challenges and required attributes for trainers and training managers have been described. The results can be seen as a promising first step. However, further discussions will be necessary in order to complete the list of attributes and to improve the logical structure. As soon as this has been realized a check list should be prepared that can be used for training of trainers and for self-assessment of trainers. It might help in the selection of trainers according to the challenges in relation to particular training events. Such a list can also be helpful for assessing applicants who are interested to work as a trainer or as a manager of training.