'Training' suggests putting stuff into people, when actually we should be developing people from the inside out - so they achieve their own individual potential - what they love and enjoy, what they are most capable of, and strong at doing, rather than what we try to make them be.
'Learning' far better expresses this than 'training'.
Training is about the organisation. Learning is about the person.
Training is (mostly) a chore; people do it because they're paid to. Learning is quite different. People respond to appropriate learning because they want to; because it benefits and interests them; because it helps them to grow and to develop their natural abilities; to make a difference; to be special.
Training is something that happens at work. Learning is something that people pursue by choice at their own cost in their own time. Does it not make sense for employers to help and enable that process? Of course it does.
The word 'learning' is significant: it suggests that people are driving their own development for themselves, through relevant experience, beyond work related skills and knowledge and processes. 'Learning' extends the idea of personal development (and thereby organisational development) to beliefs, values, wisdom, compassion, emotional maturity, ethics, integrity - and most important of all, to helping others to identify, aspire to and to achieve and fulfil their own unique individual personal potential.
Learning describes a person growing. Whereas 'training' merely describes, and commonly represents, transfer of knowledge or skill for organisational gain, which has generally got bugger-all to do with the trainee. No wonder people don't typically enjoy or queue up for training.
When you help people to develop as people, you create far greater alignment and congruence between work and people and lives - you provide more meaning for people at work, and you also build and strengthen platform and readiness for any amount of skills, processes, and knowledge development that your organization will ever need.
Obviously do not ignore basic skills and knowledge training, for example: health and safety; how to use the phones, how to drive the fork-lift, etc - of course these basics must be trained - but they are not what makes the difference. Train the essential skills and knowledge of course, but most importantly focus on facilitating learning and development for the person, beyond 'work skills' - help them grow and develop for life - help them to identify, aspire to, and take steps towards fulfilling their own personal unique potential.
Experiential learning contains many of the principles explained here. See the guide to facilitating experiential learning activities.
When organisations work well it's always due to emotional maturity and integrity, which together enable self-discipline and right thinking and actions. Compassion helps you to sustain people, and to foster a culture of cooperation and mutual support. Compassion is the bedrock of tolerance and understanding, which governs the effectiveness of internal and external communications and team-working.
Skills and knowledge are the easy things. Most people will take care of these for themselves. Helping and enabling and encouraging people to become happier more fulfilled people is what employers and organisations should focus on. Achieve this and the skills and knowledge will largely take care of themselves.
Give people choice in what, and how and when to learn and develop - there is a world of choice out there, and so many ways to access it all. People have different learning styles, rates of learning, and areas of interest. Why restrict people's learning and development to their job skills? Help them learn and develop in whatever way they want and they will quite naturally become more positive, productive and valuable to your organisation. (You may need to find bigger and/or different roles for them, but that's entirely the point - you want people to be doing what they are good at, and what they enjoy - this is what a good organisation is.)
Talk about learning, not training, focus on the person, from the inside out, not the outside in, and offer relevant learning in as many ways as you can.
A training policy is different to a training manual. A policy is a set of principles. A manual is a far more detailed set of operating procedures and supporting notes for trainers and trainees. This generally dictates that training manuals are required in two different formats - one for trainers and one for trainees.
A policy is more fixed and concise than a manual. A manual is subject to greater and more frequent and detailed changes. A policy provides the principles and system on which the manual(s) can be built. A policy reflects philosophy and values and fundamental aims. A manual deals with how the aims are to be achieved in terms that describe (and if appropriate illustrate too) specific tasks and duties.
Because training manuals contain operating procedures, instructions and supporting notes that are specific to the training concerned, most training manuals are more liable to change than a policy, and this flexibility for changing and updating content is an important aspect in deciding the overall system for producing and administrating training manual documentation, which is best addressed and defined in the training policy.
While a training policy tends to be established and agreed at a higher executive or managerial level than individual training manuals, the above point demonstrates why input from and consultation with training design and delivery staff are important in designing an effective training policy.
Here's a quick simple template or basic structure for a modern effective and socially responsible training and development policy.
You might prefer to call it a learning and development policy, or any other title which will be most meaningful for your situation and people. The structure can also be used to create a training and development manual.
Drafting or re-drafting a policy inevitably requires an examination - and ideally a consultation among those interested - focusing on what you are trying to achieve, in this case for people's learning and development. This process connects with and potentially improves just about every aspect of the organization, so it's a useful exercise if you've not done it or it needs revisiting.
You will find many and various examples of actual training and development policies in use. Several are now published on the web by the organizations which operate them, because this is a demonstration of organizational quality.
As such, an effective modern training and development (or learning and development) policy is an increasingly important part of any organization's visibility and image in the eyes of its customers, staff, potential new employees, and the market as a whole.
Training policies vary greatly because (rightly) they tend to be very specific for the organization.
That said, broadly a good training and development policy will cover the following aspects. There is no set or definitive order. Other people and organizations will have different ideas.
Your own policy (and structure/template you start with) needs to be suitable for your own situation.
You might find other useful ideas in the induction training checklist and other training templates on this website, because they all provide different aspects and potential headings/content for an overall training policy.
The challenge in developing an effective training policy is including all the key issues but keeping it concise and compact, so people will actually read and refer to it.
Importantly also, a training policy must provide the basic system and management guide for the people who design and develop training manuals within the organization - for example whether manuals must contain, or instead refer to, the training policy; whether manuals are course-specific or job-specific or departmental-specific; who is responsible for designing and updating manuals; and whether the media formats of manuals (printed, online, etc).
Whatever is included in the training policy, keep it simple - the use of short bullet points under each heading will enable greater clarity. Policies are no use if they are so dry and wordy that people are not inclined to read and use them.
Seek input from all interested people - especially those who are responsible for fulfilling training responsibilities - again a policy is no use if it is developed in isolation of those who need it.
Circulate draft versions of your new policy to people at all levels and in all functions, so that you can be sure the wording is understood and meaningful - and also to arrive at a policy which is agreed and acceptable.
More detailed or changeable points can always be appended to the main document, which enables easier changes, and avoids cluttering the main principles.
Detailed aspects of training content and trainee notes are not for inclusion in a training policy - specific training (and trainers') notes are for training manuals, not the overriding training policy document.
As stated, a training manual is different to a training policy. A training policy deals with relatively fixed overriding principles and strategy and systems. Training manuals deal with specific training notes and training content such as instructions, procedures, standards, diagrams and illustrations, technical data and trainer's notes. Before writing lots of training manuals it is useful to decide and describe how the manuals should be structured and organized - which logically is best addressed in the training policy, typically within 'systems/tools' considerations or similar.
A training manual can take various forms, and typically covers a defined training area or subject or course.
Therefore organizations of a very modest scale (over 20 employees for example) will typically produce and maintain several or many different training manuals.
Irrespective of the size of the organization, it is perfectly reasonable to assemble all training manuals within one compendium, which is helpful for all staff and also for the overall management/overseeing of training manual materials.
A training manual can cover departmental or job-specific training, or a particular training course (for example sales, finance, operation of equipment, etc). A training manual can also cover training that is relevant to all jobs and departments (for example, induction, health and safety, IT, employment law, management, etc).
The two main different versions of training manuals are:
Each version contains essentially the same material, but extended and adapted for the different purposes of trainer or trainee.
A training policy can be included in a training manual, or kept separate as a reference document, but one way or another it must be made available to people and referred visibly in all training manuals.
Whether to include the full training policy within training manuals largely depends on the size of the training policy document and the amount of training manuals updates. A concise inspiring training policy of between one and three pages would fit very well within any number of training manuals, and is probably an ideal approach. However in larger organizations requiring wordier policies, an unavoidably heavy policy of ten pages is instead probably best merely summarised in training manuals, and a reference given for obtaining the whole policy document. Keeping a large policy separate is also sensible where lots of updates are made to manuals.
Increasingly training policies and manuals can be made available online, via an intranet or similar, which enables easier and faster updating and communication of changes. Again this is a principle which should initially be agreed at the training policy stage.
Here is a sensible structure for a training manual. In this example it is assumed that the training policy is a separate document:
This template is an example. Sequence and items can be changed to suit situations. Where training is delivered by a trainer (as distinct from online or distance learning) then a trainer's version of the manual should include additional sections covering these aspects, as appropriate to the situation:
You should develop a structure for your own situation that meets the needs of people using it and what you are aiming to achieve.
There are so many ways to do this. Essentially delegates need notes and supporting information that are appropriate and relevant to the training content being imparted, and also to the preferred styles of the trainees.
For example if the trainees tend to prefer lots of detail, then ensure notes contain lots of detail. If trainees prefer quicker visual representations and diagrams and pictures, then ensure such images feature strongly in the supporting notes.
If trainees are very active and practical and seek lots of participative hands-on experience then ensure these aspects are built into the supporting materials.
Whatever, make sure that each element of the training content is structured to explain its characteristics, standards/parameters, inputs and outcomes.
Charts and grid layouts containing numbered points, comparisons, graphs are much more effective than free-running text and narrative.
You can also use/adapt the main structure of a training planner (or your own local equivalent) to define and present each part or element of the training content in clear consistent sections, for example:
This is a just a broad suggestion of format and possible sections - sections sizes depend on the content you'd need to insert in each.
| training manual - notes page structure example | |
| skill/ability/area to be trained - definition | |
| purpose/relevance of capability | |
| element or part of area to be trained - definition | |
| purpose/result/aim of training element | |
| required standard or parameter | |
| current knowledge or ability | |
| activity or exercise | |
| tools, equipment, materials | |
| timings, venue, person responsible | |
| notes, diagrams | |
| completed | |
| references/further info | |
| follow-up and measurement | |
Other frameworks can be used instead or in association with relevant sections above. Select a framework or structure for the format of the notes which fits the situation and the needs of the delegates. The following models and methods provide possible structures to use or adapt or blend in developing a helpful format for the actual training content notes pages of a training manual. Once you have a format you can then more easily fill in the boxes, or even delegate the task of doing so to someone who understands the technicalities of the training element without necessarily being able to design training from scratch. The format is the key.
These templates are a guide - a starting point or a default.
Provided you follow an appropriate structure of some sort then your options are limitless - particularly when one begins to consider the growing possibilities of digital and online media.
Whatever, strive for a training policy and a training manual methodology that meets the needs of your people and what you are aiming to achieve in the widest and most adventurous way possible.
Training must be structured and logical, because it must be appropriate and measurable - moreover it should also be innovative, enjoyable, ethical, and responsive to the increasing expectations of your people and your customers.
See anyway the learning models:
VAK/Skills Attitude Knowledge/Multiple Intelligence
and other materials for developing people such as:
experiential learning - and guide to facilitating experiential learning activities
training and developing people
why conventional organizational change mostly fails
and the main businessballs website, if you are not already there.
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