Essential Skills for Trainers
As an assessor or trainer, you’re an important part of the apprentice’s support. You have a vital role to play, so you need to have any and all essential skills. A great trainer or assessor is responsible for shaping the knowledge the apprentice learns. As well as shaping them for their future.
We’ve recently talked about tips to become a better adult teacher. But are there any essential skills that trainers need? The answer is yes! The skills needed do vary quite a bit, but here we’ve got a broad list to help you become a better trainer and assessor.
Communication
Having good communication skills is pretty standard for anyone. But having clear and concise communication skills is essential to making you a better trainer. You need the right tools to communicate your material and concepts with the learner, so they’re able to understand. You should also engage with your learners with questions, to get an idea of what they’re taking away.
Within communication, it’s important to be reliable, approachable and easy to contact. Even if you have great communication skills, if no one can contact you or your learners don’t think your reliable then they’ll probably not open that avenue.
You as a trainer or assessor need to show your knowledge to your learners so they can learn and you need to motivate them to work hard. You need to be a good listener too, as it wouldn’t be effective communication without it.
Research skills
Research skills are extremely important. As it gets you to look in-depth into what your learner is looking at. With the rise of technology and search engines, you need to be able to navigate them as well! Sometimes this isn’t the standard Google search, many people also use social media as search engines. It’s important that you keep up with it. Developing research skills are key to finding the right content and sources.
Learners need to have a strong knowledge of research to base it on. You should be diligent and thorough with any sources you may provide and the quality of those sources. You can ask yourself, is this source reliable? Is all the content relevant? Is this website legitimate? The validity and reliability of the sources and information you give out to your learners is your responsibility.
Organisation and Leadership skills
Having good organisation and leadership skills is a must for trainers and assessors. Whether you’re organising your learners or the schedule. Your ability to handle your daily tasks and remain calm and collected when in high-stress situations is important. You need to be clear about daily goals, as that’ll reflect on your leadership skills. It’s also essential to set an example as a strong leader and role model, as your students will learn from you. Additionally, a great trainer knows how to control and direct a group in a positive way.
Passion
As we mentioned in our recent blog, about becoming a better adult teacher. Passion is massively important. Even if you’re a trainer or assessor, you need to have a passion for your subject area. No one wants to learn from someone who doesn’t have a passion or care. Furthermore, you need to have a passion for teaching others, as well as learning. Having enthusiasm is also a great skill to have! People who are happy and enthusiastic about their work, inspire others to work harder. You can provide an energetic and motivating environment for your students by doing this.
You encourage response
Encouraging responses. Like questions or answers, is extremely important as a trainer. A great trainer makes sure to involve all learners within the group. Whether they might be shy, outgoing or in the middle. It’s important that you include all your learners. A great trainer will not only listen but encourage other learners and what they might think. You shouldn’t suppress the voice of your trainees, but encourage them to speak up and discuss so they can start to learn more.
Be open to new tools
Being open to new tools and avenues of learning is also a very important skill for a trainer. As it’s important to know about any tools that will help your learners. Maybe this could be a spellchecker tool or language assistant on their systems. Try and introduce as much technology that can make your learners’ lives and work easier. Try out creative methods of problem-solving.
That being said, you need tech savviness! How can you know about these tools if you’re not constantly learning about new tech? Technology is changing and this requires trainers as well. To keep up the pace with the students and the developments in training and E-Learning. Methods will need to change with the way technology is, so being on top of it will make you a great trainer!
Adaptability skills
A sign of a great trainer is how they adapt to changes quickly! As some things don’t always go to plan. You need to be prepared for the unexpected. When that happens you need to be able to adapt. Quick thinking can get you in better situations. You may have a great plan for the day, but you might need to switch it up depending on your student’s level of understanding. So how can you? Well, don’t be afraid to make mistakes! Making mistakes is all part of the learning process. Being able to adapt and learn from the mistakes is essential for trainers.
Co-operation skills
Being able to work with all kinds of people well is an essential skill for trainers. Being a trainer you’ll be working with a vast array of people, so being able to work with them and create a great learning environment is essential! Put any opinions you may have aside and get on with the training!
Have we missed any skills that would make you a better trainer? If you think we have then please let us know in the comments! If you have any questions about becoming an assessor or trainer then don’t hesitate to get in contact with us here at Brooks and Kirk. You can call us on 01205 805 155 and we would be happy to answer any of your questions.