• Are you making the most of your training budget?
• Are you making best use of your staff?
• Are you adaptable and able to change role?
• Are you making full use of both traditional and digital training solutions?

This fully revised edition of a highly acclaimed, best-selling book is a jargon-free, hand-holding guide for those new to training, or someone wanting to develop their training skills. This comprehensive guide to training covers everything from designing, delivering and evaluating training to advice on training as a career. The book also includes valuable advice for trainers on training as a business and going it alone. It covers in detail:

• Being professional - handling pressure and recharging your batteries;
• Understanding how people learn;
• Designing and delivering training - and evaluating the results;
• Tapping into your own creativity and using sources of inspiration;
• The trainer as… coach/mentor/facilitator/consultant/change agent/author/conference organizer… etc;
• Training as a career and a business;
• Using traditional and online methods of training - blended learning.

Complete with a detailed appendix providing useful contact points and Web sites, this practical handbook that proved itself so invaluable in its first two editions it is now fully revised and also now includes information on specialist coaching techniques and the use of blended learning.

CONTENTS

Preface to the third edition
Acknowledgements

Introduction
How to use this book
What is training?
Creating a learning environment
The changing role of training and development
The role of the trainer
The line manager as trainer and coach

Chapter 1. Being Professional
Being comfortable with yourself
The performance
Preventing burn-out
Handling pressure
Recharging the batteries
Handling difficult people

Chapter 2. How People Learn
Learning styles
Designing training to meet people's needs
Thinking creatively

Chapter 3. Designing a Training Programme
Getting started - the initial idea
Identification of client needs
Linking training to business objectives
Design of the learning solution
Production of materials

Chapter 4. Delivering Training
Methods of delivery
Co-tutoring
Train-the-trainer
Using external speakers
Organizing venues
Dealing with the unexpected

Chapter 5. Sources of Inspiration
Being creative
Ideas generation
The art of the possible
Brainstorming
Mind mapping
Creative problem-solving
Networking
Using resources

Chapter 6. Getting the Best from Blended and E-learning
So what does blended learning mean?
Why is blended learning important?
So who needs to be involved and when?
What makes for successful blended learning?
Designing and writing online learning
Design principles
Useful contacts
What are the benefits of blended learning?
What is the future for blended learning?

Chapter 7. Evaluation of Training
Background
Evaluation of T&D functions
Evaluation of T&D programmes
Evaluation of training events
Evaluation of trainers
Establishing appropriate standards

Chapter 8. The Trainer As...
Coach
Personal coach
Mentor
Facilitator
Counsellor
Consultant
Change agent
Assessor
Author
Distance learning designer
Conference organizer

Chapter 9. Training as a Career
How do you train to be a trainer?
Career progression
Personal development
Developing new skills
Membership of professional associations
Managing your success
Neuro Linguistic Programming and other developments
In training
A note of caution

Chapter 10. Training as a Business
The first steps
Creating a brand
Identifying your offer
Assessing the marketplace
Setting a business plan
Marketing
Winning the business
Networking
Managing others