Training computer-is the cost of training, justify the results?

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Why is it that month after month, year after year, despite dozens of soft-skills and computer training courses, employees don't seem competent on the job? If this describes you or your company, you are not alone. In the 16 years I have been training, I have heard this complaint many times (usually from the students themselves!), the result being employees who are not able to handle core competencies on the job despite training investments of time and money.

While I normally like to provide statistics in my articles, truth to tell, I had trouble finding any statistics on this subject--searches turned up companies offering training, but not articles on the subject of training efficiency. It seems many are eager to provide the training, but few are willing to back up their results.

Despite this glaring deficiency, we can still glean some valuable concepts from a thoughtful look at the topic. So let's take a look at 6 things that go wrong with training, why, and how to fix them so you can begin to obtain the results you are paying for.

1. Training Not Job-Specific

The number one reason employees are not able to translate their training into tangible business results is that the training is not job-specific. Think back to when you were a kid in school, learning math skills that you could never in a million years imagine needing. This is exactly how your employees feel in training courses that are not designed specifically for their job tasks.

While it may be pedagogically correct to teach employees all 93 ways to navigate a program, and to systematically cover each area of computer software or soft-skills competencies, they do not work well for translating training into results. Why? The simple answer is: boredom and job-skills density.

Employees do not have the attention span to wade through several hours of concepts to finally get to the 1 or 2 actually useful ideas from the training session. That is why the number one thing you can do to increase your "dollars and sense ratio" is to tailor the training courses to your employees' job tasks.

I realize this is easier said than done. Because, for starters, it purposefully leaves large holes in the employees' knowledge sets relating to a software application or soft-skill. But times have changed. Used to be, you could learn all there was to know about a software program in a few weeks, and even become fairly proficient at virtually everything in a few days. Now, it is simply not feasible for employees to master every aspect of a program.

Think about it. A company like Microsoft has spent millions and millions of dollars developing a program like Word. This has also taken hundreds--possibly thousands--of people, from designers to programmers to marketers, almost two decades of growing the program in every conceivable way. Should we really expect an employee to master a program like this in a day or two? Does it make any sense at all?

Think of software as a language. Each program is its own language, although thanks to common operating systems such as Mac and Windows, and shared standards, there are some common words. Because of the overwhelming complexity of a language, it makes more and more sense to learn the specifics of what you need to accomplish, rather than to learn endless trivia and details that ultimately will not matter and, worse, dilute the whole experience to the point of uselessness.

Let me put it this way.

Imagine you were in a foreign country, and you wanted to find a bathroom. You certainly wouldn't enroll in a language course to meet this rather urgent need! Yet this is exactly what many training sessions accomplish for employees: nothing. And the urgent business needs go unmet, or worse, get "looked up in a hurry" and employees often resort to unorthodox and poorly implemented solutions to avoid a crisis.

This translates to hodge-podge solutions that often need to be fixed over and over again, and even redone from scratch the right way. Is this ringing true for you or your organization?

Therefore, always take the time and even extra expense to ensure your training sessions are customized to your employees and their job tasks. Exercises should be similar to actual job requirements, and even use actual or sample company files in the classroom.

Any training company will be willing to offer this for you, but you must ask for it, and often pay extra for such customization. But again, consider the alternative of wasting training dollars and suddenly this "luxury" becomes a necessity.

2. "Hands-OFF" Training Sessions

I have been called upon to deliver training sessions in which I simply present the software to a group as a presentation, with little to no actual student involvement. I call this a "hands-off" training session, and in my mind this is usually a waste of everyone's time and money.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, is quoted to have said (paraphrased), "People turn on their PCs to turn on their minds; they turn on their TVs to turn off their minds."

When you have a trainer demonstrating the software for your employees, the employees naturally tend to turn off, like watching a movie or a TV show. It is much harder to concentrate when asked to simply sit and watch a presentation, than when you are expected to actually follow along and replicate what the instructor is doing.

Therefore, from this point on, I would suggest never holding training sessions that are simply demonstrations. Even if it costs more to rent a room and laptops for the employees, again you have to keep in mind why you are holding the training in the first place. If it is simply to placate management that all employees have been through a training session on a software program, and accountability for employees to understand and utilize the information is not necessary, then by all means, hold these types of sessions.

But if you require hard-hitting, powerful, effective training for your employees, steer clear of this type of training session. This, too, will greatly even out your dollars and sense ratio.

3. Instructors are not "Entertraining"

We all like to be entertained. When we are bored, we turn off our brains; this is a fundamental law of being human. Of course you can scare people into paying attention for a period of time, but other than that, you need to engage their minds and entertain them while you train them. I call this "Entertraining."

Of course, I'm not suggesting you hire an actual comedian for your next training session (unless you think it's funny), but you do want an instructor who not only knows the material well, but who can also present it in an entertaining and humorous way. The bottom line is, no one likes to listen to a monotone or a boring presentation; your instructor needs to be dynamic, interesting, engaging, and succinct, or again, your dollars and sense ratio will fall.

4. Lack of Lab Time During Training Sessions

The very word "lab," when discussed in conjunction with computer training, sounds so flabby, boring, and unproductive. It's hard to imagine a more boring scenario: a bunch of people quietly muddling through an exercise or two while the instructor just "lounges." What a waste of training dollars and time! Right?

Wrong!

It is not possible for an instructor to actually teach a student anything. The best the instructor can do is present the material as clearly, and engagingly, as possible, and the student must assimilate the information and teach themselves.

What? Don't believe me? When was the last time you successfully taught a stone to operate a computer? I guarantee you, no matter how dynamic, interesting, factual, concise, and efficient an instructor you find, you will not be able to teach a stone to do anything (well, other than fall, which they already do exceedingly well!).

Point is, no matter how good the presentation, the employees have to process the data, understand it, and make it theirs, and the only time this really begins to occur is while they are trying to use the program without help.

Think of a lab like training wheels on a bicycle. It's a whole lot easier to learn to ride a bike when you try it out on your own, with a little help from the training wheels when you need it, than starting right in on trying to ride a two-wheeler all alone!

Yet this is exactly what many training sessions are like, and why they are not effective. Imagine simply telling a child, "start pedaling, keep the handlebars pointed straight ahead, and pull this lever to stop." That's the upshot of so many training sessions. This is why labs are extremely important to the overall success of a training session.

Now, let me be clear.

I am not suggesting that the whole class suddenly grind to a halt in the middle of a training session, and take 30-45 minutes to do a lab on a single concept. Labs can be smoothly, subtly, integrated into a training session, as easily as offering 4-5 minutes here and there for students to try out a concept on their own, take notes, or replicate a previous exercise.

For your next training session, insist on labs throughout, to reinforce and solidify key concepts.

6. Overly-Long Training Sessions

Everyone wants to get the most bang for the buck, so scheduling the longest possible training sessions for the money seems to make the most sense. The longer students are in the classroom, the more they'll learn, right? Well, yes--to a point.

Think back to the last super long movie you watched. Think, "The Green Mile" or even "Gone with the Wind." These are seminal, classic works, and anyone watching them wants to be there, right? Yet how many of you have rented a long movie and broken it up over at least a couple of nights? (Come on now, be honest!)

If you're like most people, even with material you actively are enjoying, there is a limit to how much you want and are able to absorb at once, and this is especially true in your corporate training sessions. Having taught many a course that lasted 7-8 hours, I can tell you that students turn off after about 5 hours. Oh, they'll sit there politely while the instructor barrels ahead, but the glassy-eyes and slow moments indicate their lack of involvement (and I'm a dynamic teacher!).

My conclusion is that training sessions are better kept to shorter lengths overall, such as a maximum of 5-6 hours. Better still, allow at least 1-2 breaks in the morning and afternoon, or schedule training as half-day sessions over several days. Nothing beats a fresh student, a fresh teacher, and plenty of time--spread out over time--for a successful training result.

6. Lack of Follow-Up and Follow-Through

Any successful learning involves feedback: knowing if you are on the right track, and if not, taking action to get back on track. Yet this key aspect of feedback, which I am calling follow-up and follow-through, is rarely if ever implemented.

In all of the 16 years I have been training, not once have I been called back for a follow-up session to reinforce concepts, offer lab time, or simply entertain questions students may have. Yet without follow-up and follow-through, your training sessions will be hit and miss at best.

What I am saying is, you need to communicate with your employees and colleagues about recent training, discover if their needs have been met, and if not, find a way to meet their needs. Maybe it's just a matter of purchasing a reference book, or having the trainer back for general questions, or to consult on a particular job-related issue.

An easy way to accomplish this is to use surveys for your training sessions. One client I know uses a company called SurveyMonkey to accomplish this; it makes it easy to create and send out surveys electronically. You can also use paper surveys that you design, but if you have a lot of training, the tabulating of the data can be quite work-intensive.

However you choose to do it, take the time to survey students following the course to discover if they got what they needed from the session, how well they felt the instructor met their needs, and what could be done to improve a future session.

Even better than just a survey following the class is a survey preceding the course, called a pre-survey. You can use pre/post surveys to really zero in on the effectiveness of your training efforts, and ultimately improve your dollars to sense ratio dramatically.

Conclusion

In this article we have touched on some of the key elements you need to consider when trying to translate your training efforts into real-world results. We discussed the power of :


Customized training
Hands-on training
Instructor "entertrainment"
Labs during sessions
Shorter training sessions, and
The importance of follow-up and follow-through with pre- and post-course surveys

I hope you use the techniques to make your next training session much more powerful than the last, and have your employees raving about the quality and effectiveness of your training sessions. Until next time, we'll solve our problems Bit by Bit!

About the Author:

Michael J. Phillips is an author, computer and soft-skills trainer, and technology guru in the Orange County area of Southern CA. He has been teaching technology since the word "email" was born. Take advantage of his expertise and book corporate computer and soft-skills training which gets real business results, guaranteed. Visit PC Training Experts.com.

(c) 2009 Mike Phillips. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

What is the flow of skills training and why does the train go?

Training functional term is widely used in the field of conditioning and strength. Functional training can be described as training in order to perform a function. This objective covers a wide range and depends on the purpose of each. What may be one person or sports action may not be to another. This must always ask, "Why I'm training the way I'm training."

Even when the question of why we need to be cautious for training, as what is a functional and what is not. Each person can have a different view on what functional training is, and this may lead to confusion. For the bodybuilder wish to buy mass muscle lean they will consider their training to be functional. Isolation of a single joint, in sitting position and movements of stabilized/machine will be a large part of their training. Conversely, track athlete, or athlete sport they want to increase performance, consider their training is functional. Integrated, mixed, ground based, and motion stability shall be a large part of their training. Santana (2000), "safe definitions for functional training is training that the terms of the unit in accordance with its integrated movement and/or use". Even with the above reasoning is hard with concrete definition of what functional training is.

Training skills movement, the term is more precise and can be defined as training that the conditions of the body by the movements of the basic skills using gravity, momentum, the ground reaction forces, and 360 degrees of movement in order to improve stability, balance, coordination, strength and zasilaniai most importantly, reduce the likelihood of injury. Our operational environment consists of gravity, momentum, the forces of reaction and 360 degrees of movement. These are the factors that we can deal with on the basis of daily and these cannot be avoided.

Keep in mind that everything we do is a skill. Skills can range from learning how to get up and go to the bathroom, as in the case of persons with disabilities, reaching down to pick something off the floor to high-level situations. Whether the task is very simple or complex still is a skill. For example, consider walking. Most of us have no problem walking, but for someone who is disabled, just learning how to properly walk must be considered as a skill just as you would for someone who is not disabled. The only difference is that a person who is not excluded to time easier than will be disabled. We have to treat everything as skills from the most simple to the complex.

We can train skills first in order to improve the efficiency of neuromuscular. Neuromuscular efficiency is a fancy word for coordination and because this is the quickest adjustment we can train him for the first time. In fact, are the training patterns of movement, which the brain (central nervous system) is able to process quickly, and because the muscles are a slave to the brain, you will receive more effective recruitment of muscles and this leads to a better balance, stability, movement, and greater flexibility. The first strength of adaptation in the first weeks of 8-12 strength training programme are caused by these other factors neural. Rather than wait for 8-12 weeks for these neural factors in "kick" in strength training, we can train skills movement for the first time in order to facilitate this process of adaptation of neural and thus start head 8 weeks compared to the strength of a traditional training approach. The acquisition of skills represents strength and people can become stronger without adding any additional muscle and do so in a shorter period of time. When we start using the skills to engage muscle systems, muscles get bigger and stronger (fires more efficiently) when called repeatedly.

The basic skills we can train movements are: marketing, Squatting, reaching, lunging/strengthening, pushing and stroke. These movements represent 4 categories of basic skills: Locomotion, changes in level, push/pull and rotate. Santana (2000) refers to these categories as the 4 pillars of the movement of people. All motions, which we can perform on a daily basis, even those in weight training fall within the scope of this approach 4 pillar.

How can training skills movement benefits be? The first thing to realize is that our bodies are built to handle and are too complex and separate effectively training by any machine. Training skills trains traffic patterns, and not isolated muscle. Training patterns of motion allows you to train multiple groups of muscles at the same time so you can get more results in less time. During the training patterns of movement are also work stabilizing muscles, which are so important to reduce the risk of injury. Machine training and most traditional bodybuilding exercises offer small (artificial stability) or not stabilization at all and even though you may get the "pump" may not be displayed complete training.

Generally training skills movement effectively will help you:

-Burn more fat

-The development of the kontrasty body or build muscle

-Improving the efficiency of athletic

-Strengthening the networks of the quality movement

-Increase the strength and power

-Limit the risk of injury

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Eric Weiner-engineer improvements in productivity and motivational coach. He was created a unique system of training that includes fitness training with reprogramming your mind for success, which helps both men and women to change their bodies look, feel and perform better faster than ever before.

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What impact on brain training to achieve the desired success

Person successful confide the fact that, for one to achieve the desired success have good brain activity installation in order to achieve the expected success. Successful people give emphasis to the fact that the individual items in the social setting affects the kind of success one ends with the end of the day. There are very many books and papers done as the impact on training to the achievement of desired life success, people who write these books for follow-up with intensive training seminar to help the individual achieve what they want through the use of their brain capacity. Each of which have probably heard of training is aware of the fees associated with such seminar; It happens to be a surprise for a single seminar 2 h to be valued more than 1000 dollars. Motivational seminars are some of the most profitable business ever one can engage in one may think about training people to get to these seminars; the answer is real simple, brain training.

Any speaker Presentation at these seminars will work hands down to assist persons create mental images toward the achievement of the desired; If this is achieved, the speaker's Presentation is to achieve a goal for the day. More than 90 percent of the content taught on these seminars can be achieved only if the person is also the ability to believe and trust itself in providing the kind of success they wish to have. However, people usually correspond to the information supplied to them by the persons who have already achieved the success they desire in your life. It is possible to focus on the purpose and form of the brain training on the attainment of this objective. Mental images is the basis for the mental visualization, when an individual fills their minds with what they want to achieve then relevant thoughts configurations are created and forms in mind within the same game plan.

Mind and finds ways to have this objective has, in the shortest possible time. It is important to understand that success is happening overnight and that one must practice the consistency in their system of beliefs in order to see the achievement of the expected success. One should also seek to obtain some understanding of how the brain and mind work affect their functions; This knowledge is very important to act as a guide of signaling, whenever an individual makes decisions that are not beneficial to their end.

It is necessary to understand the effects of tmtoulouse in each activity one engages in the development of the Auto, most people are rather sceptical about the fact that tmtoulouse affect every detail in your life. Each individual successfully implement effect with their surrounding something set and acknowledges the role played by natural laws. It is important to be aware of the effects of the laws of attraction and how one may include those for better training of the brain. The brain is made in such note that it may perform impossibilities; It is the task of individual Attention and stimulate efforts between themselves in order to achieve such impossibilities.

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Why is train the instructor training important?

You must realise that any coach requires two separate sets of skills and knowledge. First of all need to know in the topic are teaching (subject-matter expertise). And secondly, they must know how to move this information to the student (instructional expertise).

While instructors are employed to teach adult learners, which require both skill sets. The Problem is, corporations need people to know that the material on the topic very well; and for the understanding of the topic well enough to teach at a high level, you can often have the experience of experts or Graduate degree in it yourself. Yes most corporations and universities hire instructors which have confer post graduate degrees or subject matter expertise in the field they are training. But the victim because the majority of the instructors have little or no training in instructional expertise or instructor-led training. Administrators assume that having been exposed to so many learning experiences, instructors will have learned how to learn simply by watching other train trainers. The most common skills that are recognized are lecture style traditional, which are non-interactive and are not well suited to the style-auditory learning.
Schools, middle schools and primary schools, however, know better. They know that the best teachers usually been taught students. They require their teachers to classes and practice on teaching--in addition to other education in the topic or topics that they are teaching.
It is ironic that primary schools and middle schools, which are designed for a much less intense than education, better understand the importance of the recruitment of teachers, who teach students.

The same can be said for any instructor--whether they are teaching preschoolers, adolescents and adults cannot simply explain the topic to their students and then expect them to "Get it. Training is more than just a simple transfer of knowledge. It is not enough to open your knowledge-and-mouth disease and of the students brains. You need to know how to organize this knowledge, present it in different formats for students who have different learning styles and preferences and to talk about the topic in a way that students can understand and learn from.

It must also be able to design ways to "assess whether students are already familiar with what you are trying to learn. And you will be able to address various types of difficulties that students with special needs may have so that it can best assist them in learning the topics they are presenting.

Train the instructor training that you can run all of these things and more. PrepMasters be A Great Trainer Workshop provides a perfect training skills and career certification on the basis of the latest scientific research.

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Training towards a healthy Brain-training tips

Did you know that our lifestyle can significantly impact the brain? Consider this. Whether you're a student, professional, or a senior, will never be too early to keep the brain sharp. Our brains are at the heart of who we are as human beings.

Tips for brain adjustments are as follows:

about Traveling is an activity that may expose the brain to a multidimensional and new environments.

to Build and maintain emotional connections to friendship, which can be stored in memory with diseases such as dementia.

about working on a smart diet.

-Eat healthy fats found in nuts. Nuts contain vitamin e. try to eat nuts often as shooting for 15 mg per day.
-Munch on berries. Berries have antioxidant that helps build healthy connections between brain cells.
-Select chocolates dark. Dark chocolates contain flavonoids, another class of antioxidants.
-Kitchen Thai and Indian use strong spice-inflammation.

about "Moderate" drinking alcohol may also benefit the brain. Beer in particular is also rich in flavonoids.

about working on Your spirituality. Religious rituals calm restless parts of the brain. You can also try meditating nature or value.

to make the habit to check if you have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, linked to memory problems.

to Use six to eight glasses of water a day. The brain needs water to flourish.

about Practice oral health. Brush your teeth 2 minutes at least once a day and floss, too. Oral diseases are associated with worse cognitive function.

to improve the self memory-efficient. This can be done by additional information about how memory works and develop realistic expectations for yourself about how the memory should work.

to enable more activities to Your routine. May be as simple as a daily 15-minute walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Play your favorite music while you exercise.

to Maintain healthy weight.

These tips will help memory, attention span and the ability to learn. The implementation of the above tips, you can also increase Our self-esteem.