Training

The aim of any training is to provide new skills or knowledge to participants so that they can apply them in their own work or to help their professional development.

From the perspective of a trainee, the goal is then to acquire new skills. From the perspective of the organization instead, there is also a strategic value.

Specifically, training can be used to open further career opportunities to the trainees. Opportunities that may become available for them in the medium-term and that would represent an interesting career development within the company, showing also a strong strategic link to talent retention.

Additional advantages of providing training are of course added efficiency and productivity + competitiveness for the unit or the whole organization.

Training in practice

Training is carried out in groups, via classes or workshops usually provided by external trainers or consultants. There are some important differences on the requirements for the trainer depending on the focus.

Hard skills

The requirements for a hard skills trainer are expertise in the specific professional field and a sufficiently large practical experience in said field. In this case, training needs to be able to not only pass on the theory and practice of a new skill, but also to bring in his or her own experience in terms of tips and tricks to speed up learning and minimize the risk of mistakes.

This type of training has usually a shorter time focus.

Soft skills

For a trainer, expertise of the professional field is relevant, however proficiency of the addressed soft skill is fundamental. These are in fact less dependent on the field of work and can be applied in different areas. The trainer’s role is to be able to identify and address the nuances of the specific skills based on what he or she can read from people. Doing so in training will also be able to chance and adapt a workshop in real time to account for said nuances.

This work usually has a longer time focus, as soft skills are traditionally longer to develop and reinforce.