I am the Learning & Development Training Officer for Sunflower Bank and am looking for suggestions to help develop a "curriculum" to develop my trainers. I am interested in hearing from other Training Managers that have developed curriculum to help develop their Trainers to be "better trainers".

Thank you for your time.

Melodie Dedonis

I believe that interactive classes are the most impactful. Make sure your trainers understand and effectively use Adult Learning Principles, Multiple Intelligence (activities), and incorporate other learner centered activities into their classes. Some sites to visit are Thiagi for games and interactive exercises. He offers these free. You may want to also get the Accelerated Learning Handbook by Meier.

Also, observe and offer as much feedback as possible. This helps both them understand the level of performance you expect. Plus, you don't know how to further develop them until you are clear about their capabilities as facilitators.

Good luck!

I put together a trainer development program years ago for what is now BA. Let me see if I can locate a contact person for you.

Please, for their sake and the sake of those who will take classes from them, pick up The Accelerated Learning Handbook and any book by Sharon Bowman, then send all of your trainers to the International Alliance for Learning Annual Conference.

You will NOT regret the investment and your trainers and their students will love you for it.

Hi Melodie:

Since you seem to be looking for something specific, I would suggest conducting an analysis to identify what competencies are most important to your situation and which ones you would like to see improved.

There are several sources that list instructor competencies you can use to help identify which competencies you might want to consider.

For Example take a look at the Instructor Competencies Assessment Instrument published by Building Professional Development Partnerships for Adult Educators Project or you can request a copy of the competencies established by International Board of Standards for Training Performance and Instruction

Once the competencies you desire have been identifies then develop the curriculum to help your instructors develop them.

You might consider another discussion post for the specific competencies you choose requesting successful methodologies.

Good Luck!