Standards

Bad Trainers

“It was terrible, it’s like he didn’t want to be there.  He just went through his PowerPoint presentation as quickly as possible, and we sat down for most of the course."

An urgent overhaul of training quality assessment is needed.

This feedback was from a qualified first aider who told me about her experience after attending a First Aid at Work Requalification course 3 years ago.  She told me that, when she first heard it was the same company delivering the training (a company I freelanced for at the time), she was dreading the prospect of the same trainer turning up again to deliver the training. I would like to say that this was a one-off, but unfortunately, this experience is all too common amongst a lot of learners I come across in my job. The sad truth is, no matter what industry you are working in, there will always be bad trainers.  In the same way, there will always be bad teachers at a school.  I’m sure you’re thinking of some right now… Trainers who simply don’t care.  Trainers who are going through the motions because they need the money.  Trainers who know the course content inside out but have not modified or adapted their training style.  Trainers who bring all their personal problems into the training room and then heap that misery on everyone else. But the question is - why is this continuing to happen, especially in an age of modern technology, video calls from anywhere, and instant, often brutal feedback, that can be given online? Something is clearly not working and I have a good idea what is failing. Standards – or shall I say, the ones responsible for policing those standards. Police Squad Any trainer or instructor who is in the training industry will tell you that, whatever field you operate your trade in, whether it’s construction, agriculture, health and safety etc., you are required to sign up to an accrediting body or multiple accrediting bodies to be able to be eligible to be selected to do that work, register to other training providers or to be insured whilst training. This usually comes at a cost. And I’m not talking about tens or even hundreds of pounds.  Some qualifications and registrations are in the thousands and to a freelancer or small business owner, these costs are hugely significant.

In addition to the required accreditation, as a freelancer, you are often registered to an accrediting body through a training provider that you are working for and as a consequence, it is a requirement that you are internally quality assured or IQA for short, by that provider every year, so you meet those standards that have been set by that particular accrediting body to ensure continuity and standardisation across the organisation. Where are you? In theory, this is how it should work but the truth is, these standards or checks are not being applied thoroughly to identify trainers who are not achieving the criteria which are deemed ‘acceptable’.  In my experience, some (not all) of the individuals doing the IQA’s are inexperienced, lack training knowledge and know significantly less about the subject matter than the trainer they are assessing. Accrediting bodies need to do more.  In some industries, once a learner has qualified as an instructor or trainer, the accrediting bodies receive their money and let that newly qualified instructor in to the wild.  They can sometimes train for up to 5 years without a single inspection, check or quality assessment by a representative of that accrediting body.  At best, it’s lazy. At worst, it’s bordering on negligent. To say that I am a perfect trainer who knows all the subject matter on every training course I’m qualified to deliver is disingenuous and simply not true despite delivering training courses for over 15 years. But I deliver to the best of my ability and stick to my training notes and guidance set by the accrediting bodies as closely as possible and when I find myself needing assistance, I get in touch with people who I respect and admire who know more about that topic than I do.  I am, in essence, a sole trader.  I have no manager, team leader or company director to answer to but that doesn’t or shouldn’t exclude me from stringent checks, knowledge assessment or feedback to improve what I offer and to stay relevant and up to date with industry changes.

Sadly, there are too many in the industry who are not stepping up and doing what is required to stop these negative learning experiences that my learner experienced from happening again in the future.