Becoming an amazing trainer means you’ll need to do more than just learn how to train other people. Almost anyone can do the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, but not as many go on to be “AMAZING”.
You know amazing when you see it… the kind of trainer students rave about, refer others to and are sought out to learn from. The kind of trainer that students remember fondly for decades after because they changed their lives somehow or affected them in some profound way. Don’t you want to be that kind of trainer?
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”- Henry Brooks Adams.
That kind of trainer is our kind of trainer. If you’re reading this blog, then we already know one thing about you; you already are well on the way to becoming amazing. We can tell you have a huge heart and you actually care about the impact you have on the people you teach, how?
Because you cared enough to read this blog.
We see you!
We know you want to make a difference by being the best you can be so we’re here to help you do exactly that.
If you stop for a moment and think about your own experience as a student; primary and high school, Tafe, University or any adult training program… Which teachers do you still remember?
There are 2 kinds; the ones that you really disliked or even hated, and the ones that you absolutely loved and changed your life somehow. Now here is the most important question you can ever ask yourself… why?
We highly recommend you grab a notepad and pen and write down the answers to these next few questions. They could be very enlightening:
–> Why didn’t you like those teachers?
–> What did they do or not do that made it difficult for you?
–> Why did you love the teachers who were amazing?
–> What did they do or not do that made it easy for you?
–> Why were they different?
–> What did they inspire you to do or ignite in you?
–> Was there a ripple effect? Did your experience with them change your life, understanding or trajectory somehow?
Working this out for yourself will help you see what qualities you want to be more of and how you can really be that. At the end of the day you get to decide what kind of trainer you want to be and how you can affect others, but we’re going to add some thoughts and inspiration to the mix.
One thing we hear time and time again from our own students is how much they feel like we care. The thing is, we really genuinely care!
We care about them understanding the content and the assessments so they can graduate.
We care about them feeling confident once the finish our training.
We care about them not just being able to tick the box saying “completed”, we want them to really know how to be an amazing trainer.
We care about their wellbeing and finding any way we can to lower their stress and blocks to learning.
Truly caring is not something you can fake because we all know when someone is pretending to care about us, right?
Amazing trainers who actually care are the ones who check in with their students when they notice they’re struggling in some way; struggling with the course content, getting assessments done, sometimes even just struggling to show up!
Amazing trainers who actually care will try to find solutions or different ways to explain something when a student is struggling or stuck with the content or assessments.
Amazing trainers who actually care, do their best to make sure that their students really gain the wisdom and skills that the training they’ve created promises. And if it doesn’t, they fix it so it does.
Just keep the balance. Don’t overdo the caring, which means don’t care so much you try to save your students, or take more responsibility for their engagement, motivation and results than is yours to own. Care enough to help to the level that is appropriate, and refer them onto other professionals who can help them further in the ways that are out of your area of responsibility.
It’s not just listening, it’s hearing their students and together with caring, this becomes the one stand out skill for any trainer or teacher who gets the label of “amazing”.
We’re lucky here at Fortress Learning to have some of the best trainers who all do this naturally.
Sometimes students come to you to talk about their struggles, and other times you have to go to them. However it happens, this is your prime opportunity to show you care but really listen to them.
Listen to the words they’re saying.
Listen for the emotions that are in the mix.
Listen for the things they aren’t saying and find ways to go deeper because one thing us humans are generally good at is not knowing or sharing the real problem.
The way to find out what’s really going on, is to get curious. Rarely is the initial question, struggle or block exactly what they might say it is. It’s up to you, as an amazing trainer, to go deeper and find out more, then address the real problem.
When you ask a student exactly what they are stuck on, they’ll give you an answer, and if you ask more probing questions like “what is your understanding of ?”, you might find out that the reason they say they don’t know what to do is because they have anxiety around the task and getting it “perfect” or “right” (which is another way of saying “perfect”), so their anxiety and fear is actually what you need to help dissolve for them to move forward with the task.
The deeper reasons students get stuck can be so varied, but you can’t fix something that you don’t even know is a problem. So get curious, ask questions, listen and really hear what’s going on for them, and then just address the real problem.
This is really self explanatory. The best and greatest, most amazing trainers are always learning, always growing, always trying to be an ever better version of themselves.
This means continuing to learn the latest content, skills and updates in your industry, so what you are teaching is as cutting edge and relevant as possible. You don’t want your training to ever get stale or irrelevant for you or your students.
Ongoing personal and professional development is how you master your craft and become sought after as a leader in your field. Stopping at the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is really just ticking the box and doesn’t make an amazing trainer.
Ongoing training for yourself is also how you create new and more career opportunities for yourself. It’s something we highly recommend you make a non-negotiable for yourself regularly each year.
Honestly…
It takes effort to become an amazing trainer.
It takes time to become an amazing trainer.
It takes skill to become an amazing trainer.
It takes a huge heart to even want to BE an amazing trainer.
And you, our dear friends, have all the foundations to be exactly that!
study@fortresslearning.edu.au
