An undeservedly discredited method – why organise professional training?

Pallai Katalin | Senior consultant

Pallai Katalin | Senior consultant

Professional training is a method discredited by many. I am convinced that this is due to the many bad trainers and the boring education called training. Think about what this method is, if used well, and what results it can have.

Professional training is a method of teaching that develops the knowledge, skills and attitude of staff in a particular field to perform to a high standard at the same time. Its strength lies in the fact that it is based on a very different logic from traditional ‘rammed down the student’s throat’ education. Training where the trainer initiates and leads an active learning process, building on the experience and existing knowledge of the participants. The strength of the method is that it is not solely about what the teacher brings in, nor does it focus on the brain-to-brain flow of knowledge between teacher and student, which either arrives and is absorbed by the student or not, but rather gives the participant an active discovery, a complex experience and a complex experience. The essence of the method is that the trainer leading the learning process creates a situation – modelled on professional challenges – to which the participants respond, so that they are almost inevitably engaged. They are faced with an exciting problem to solve or a situation to reflect on and formulate an opinion. A dialogue between the participants is initiated, reactions and positions clash, through which they reflect on the issue, opinions, their own positions and possible solutions. The trainer’s task is to lead the dialogue in such a way that different approaches emerge and creative reflection takes place, opening the participants to accept and embrace new ideas, solutions and knowledge. Active dialogue is important because all doubts can be raised and released, all questions answered, and all kinds of inhibitions and resistance can be worked through along the winding road.

In professional training, of course, the trainer is not only a process manager who can teach nuclear physics one day and organisational culture the next. The trainer needs to be a serious expert in the field in question in order to be able to both allow and guide the group’s reflection, and at points where the situation is understood, to structure the ideas and add new content that the group members have not been able to bring in. It is the responsibility of the trainer to ensure that wherever the group goes, everything that he/she has aimed for in the development of the participants’ knowledge and skills is eventually done and said. He or she must know exactly what he or she wants to deliver, just as a traditional teacher would, but must also be able to let the participants go their own way and at their own pace to reach the target and through that, to accept and embrace the content being taught.

The group work does not only generate thoughts, experiences and reflections, but also shared experiences and conclusions that are more credible and powerful than individual thoughts. In addition, good training also provides participants with a model of how to discuss things constructively, how to become constructive members of a group, how to work together effectively and create (21st century core competences that better training programmes treat as the backbone of skills development.)

When participants in a training session are colleagues in an organisation, in addition to learning, the process also brings participants closer together: as the dialogue and work develops, the other person’s face becomes more clearly defined, the relationship is strengthened, shared norms, trust, common understandings, even shared commitment, develop. In fact, this is true team building, through which the integrity of the team is strengthened.

When I work with staff in an organisation for a day or two or more, I often hear the feedback that time has flown by. We’ve learned a lot, and in the process we’ve grown closer, got to know each other better, and feel that we can work together a little differently from tomorrow.