Is it worth teaching a person to fish?

Very often the best people to train others in company-specific tasks are those that are already doing the job. Unfortunately, however, it's not as simple as that. While these trainers and coaches may have the technical skills needed, can they actually teach?

A Chinese proverb

An old Chinese proverb says: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Training the trainer or coaching the coach is like teaching a person to fish. Train one trainer or coach and they can then pass on their knowledge to many within their own organisation.

What we do

We teach your in-house trainers and coaches to deliver courses, workshops and tool-box talks. We address everything from course design to interpersonal skills. At the same time, you are giving your trainers tools, concerning not only what to teach, but how to teach.

Investing in the future

Training is an investment in the future of your organisation and its employees. Managers are understandably concerned about the payback. Building skills and improving knowledge helps companies stay competitive. However, if there is a larger group to train than the budget will allow, a company may benefit from training the trainer, for groups of employees, or coaching the coach for small groups and individuals. This will enable employers to maximise their training investment. Benefits may include:

Fast, positive results
Improved employee retention
Subject put into company context and targeted
Formation of internal alliances and teams
Training delivered at the coal-face
Improvement in specific skills or behaviour
Improvement in confidence, motivation and performance of delegates and trainer
As soon as the session ends, the trainee should be able to implement a new practice
Greater clarity and roles and objectives
Fuller use of trainee and trainer’s potential
Demonstration of commitment to individuals and their development
Facilitation of adoption of new management style or culture
Less chance of skills fade as the trainer is there to follow up, until the new skills become a habit
Less workplace down-time as trainees don’t have to travel off-site for training
Becoming an employer of choice

We asked John Saysell, our Director of Technical Training, for an example of where the ‘train the trainer’ ethic has worked, he provided this insight:

“I recently witnessed a change in supervisor for our client, in a team I am close to. The new supervisor has more of a coaching ethic whereby he will take the operators away from their day job for a few minutes, demonstrate the best approach for a particular task, get the operator to carry out the task and then critique them doing the job for real. It sounds very simple but the improvement in morale, confidence and performance of the staff has been significant.”

Raising the status

Rather than being an imposition on the new trainer it should be a recognition of their behaviours and skills. Being a trained trainer should be given status. It should not be seen as just asking them to do something else. The process that can be followed to prepare your future trainers is as simple as:

Provide a process flowchart
Select right people with vocational competence (no press ganging here)
Deliver train the trainer course
Write training materials and assessment criteria
Deliver on-job training
Assess competence of staff on-job
If not competent deliver more training and repeat

Unconsciously competent

The staff you choose as your trainers are unconsciously competent before the course. Our workshop makes them think about other aspects of what training is about. “I didn’t know there was so much to it”. The critique after their delivery is always their favourite part.

Develop new skills

The train the trainer course is only as good as the implementation after the course. If trainers are not given time to develop their new skills then an opportunity has been missed.

You don’t become the best trainer overnight. It requires practice and experience of delivering to different groups. There needs to be a commitment from the company and the trainer to make it work.

Tailored workshops

MCP has developed different formats of coaching and train the trainer workshops. The most popular is our 2 day workshop. We also offer City and Guilds registered courses. Our workshops have been delivered to operators and technicians in a range of sectors including the food, drink and water industries.

On successful completion delegates will be able to:

Design, develop and deliver training and instructional sessions
Understand the learning process and how people learn at work
Practice their training skills
Give and receive feedback

The course will focus on:

Learning styles and processes
Setting objectives
Barriers to learning
Communication – non-verbal behaviour, listening, questioning and observing
Giving and receiving feedback
Valuation and assessment
Planning and preparation
Mind-mapping
Training design
Using visual aids: flipcharts, power-point presentations
Practical exercises to reinforce learning points

MCP Train the Trainer Programmes

MCP’s experience delivering train the train and coach the coach programmes in the manufacturing and processing industries has enabled us to tailor staff learning and development to suit organisational needs, whether the shop floor or in the boardroom.

Talk to us if you need help and support with teaching your people to fish!

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