How can I make training more attractive?

Organisations often struggle to find attractive methods of learning to engage and train staff. Providing learning and development offers opportunities for individuals to improve on their existing skills and knowledge, but also for employers to enhance employee productivity and company culture.

An effective training and development strategy needs to consider the entire learning experience, from content and delivery to reporting and analytics. This CPD article will include an overview of the importance of training and development, steps to creating an attractive training course, as well as how to make virtual training more engaging.

Importance of training and development

The importance of training and development cannot be understated. Without a continuous learning program in place, employees will soon become a disengaged member of your workforce. In order to appear as an attractive employer and to meet the demand for top talent, trainee programs have become an integral part of the workplace and professional development across industries.

Enabling employees to upskill or reskill in the workplace has been shown to have benefits for both organisations and for the employee. Here are some of the top reasons of why training and development is important.

1. Improves employee performance: When an employee is valued and encouraged to upskill in the workplace, it boosts morale and job satisfaction. It also helps fulfil the employee’s need for continuous growth.
2. It helps identify knowledge gaps throughout the organisation which can inform future business and development strategies.
3. It allows you to build future leaders from within your own team. This also increases staff retention as employees can move up the ladder thanks to training and development plans implemented.
4. The overall quality of work improves. When an employee has received training, they become more knowledgeable and efficient and they take pride in their new skills.
5. Ongoing training and development will increase the workforce capacity for adopting new technologies and mechanisms, giving your organisation a competitive edge.

Steps and tips to creating an attractive training course

Creating an attractive training course doesn’t need to be difficult. As a trainer, you’re already an expert in your field. It’s important to set out a check list to ensure that you don’t go astray. It’s also important to remember how your training will be delivered and whether you need to adapt it to the online world.

Decide what your goals are and how you can achieve them. A participant’s learning goals should match your course goals and objectives. Whether a participant is attending for personnel or profession reasons, they know what they need to achieve. It’s important that your training delivers what they need to learn.

Outline your curriculum topics and break each point down. Whatever the topic you want to cover, break it down into smaller bite sized pieces, so it’s easier for the participant to digest the information. Stick to each point, have your examples and allow feedback but don’t allow conversations to deviate from the chosen topic.

Build your training content. Don’t forget to add videos, chat rooms or interactive games (gamification) that can be added to your training. (Learn more about gamification in our previous article.) Encouraging participants to partake in activities will engage the learner. For participants in the workplace that may not have been studying since their schooldays, games and activities will alleviate the potential stress of mandatory learning.

Make sure you as a trainer are confident in using each technology e.g. white boards and break out rooms. If something goes technically wrong, your confidence will feed the confidence of your participants in your content. Don’t forget to update your content regularly. Keep your content updated by using the latest real world examples. This is especially true if employees must complete mandatory training each year.

How do you motivate participants in training?

Training and development may be mandatory at work but that doesn’t mean that it should be dull. It’s vital that you keep participants motivated to achieve the best possible learning results. Participants should have the opportunity to get as many insights into the different areas of the company as possible and to find out their personal strengths. As a trainer, it’s up to do to include relevant exciting content and motivate participants. These tips can help you on your way to do that.

• Any content included needs to be relevant for their role and have a practical aspect. If participants understand that the training will make their day-to-day work easier, they are more likely to engage automatically. If they get better at their job, they open themselves to the possibility of promotion. A win/win situation.
• Whether in person or online, no one likes to be spoken at for a couple of hours. Ensure each aspect of the training is concise and vary how it is delivered, including quizzes and interactive aspects. Participants need to learn all the essential information but if you can add some humour and smiles to their learning.
• Don’t forget to encourage chat functions and discussions around topics. Make sure all participants get involved. If they don’t speak up, ask them a question and remind everyone that we’re all here to learn.
• As a trainer, be your authentic self, not a robot! Be professional but you can show your personality, this will help learners to relax and to trust you to deliver important information. Don’t forget to smile!
• Who said learning has to be hard work? Make it fun! Adding fun to any employee training and development will also add motivation for the participant to be there. They need to want to be there, rather than sitting at their desk at work. Any training is only as effective as the effort participants put into it. Remind them that what they learn will bring more efficient work day for them and make them a more valued member of their organisation.

How to make virtual training more engaging

As more courses move to online learning, it’s more important than ever to ensure that students, or employees remain engaged and motivated. Online and eLearning needs to ensure that participants remain engaged, whether that be through self-learning or trainer led. Here are some tips on how you can do that:

1. Set goals for the virtual training session and stick to them. Stick to your time plans and don’t deviate. If you wander off topic, participants’ attention will wander too.

2. Use technology to your advantage. Think about how you can use virtual games, breakout rooms, drawing tools, white boards, to your advantage. But, make sure you explain how to use these so participants can use them with confidence.

3. Ensure your training content is broken down into bite sized chunks, mix it up between slides, games and seeing the trainer’s face. Smaller pieces of information are easier to remember that a one large chunk! It’s also a good idea to remind participants of why they need to know a certain thing, especially if it may not seem directly related.

4. Be Patient. This could always be someone’s first time in a virtual training environment. People learn in different ways so it’s really important to remember this.

5. Ask participants to contribute as this will encourage them to be engaged during this session and also provide feedback for possible changes in future sessions.

6. Update your content regularly. If your course is part of yearly mandatory training, you don’t want the participants to do the same course twice. Vary your images, videos and real world examples.

Become an CPD accredited training provider

We hope this article on making training more attractive was helpful. The CPD Certification Service is the world’s leading and largest CPD accreditation organisation working across all industry sectors. If you provide courses, workshops, eLearning, virtual events and are considering becoming a CPD training provider, please contact our team to discuss in more detail. If you want to record your Continuing Professional Development, please go to the myCPD Portal where you can manage, track and log your learning in one simple place.