What makes a good training program?

I met an old buddy of mine recently, who is also a trainer, over coffee and we discussed about the training programs and the types of workshops we've conducted. He was been in the industry for about 20 years and is as passionate about training as much as I am, if not more. He shared with me that he came across a few self-appointed program developers who were unqualified, either academically and professionally. I asked him what made him reach that conclusion.

He said that most of the time, the slides given to him were poorly researched, if any at all. Information were outdated and they failed to link the slides from the different sessions. Most of the time, he said, it seemed to be a rush job even though it was given in advance. It got me thinking, what makes a good training slide? I have never seen myself as a good developer but i think, like a trainer, program development must come from the heart. In other words, if a person has no passion for it, that slide is a waste of the learners' time, a waste of the clients' money and more importantly, it can damage a trainer's reputation. Singers always get the bad review for a bad song. Same theory applies to a trainer, i believe.

I had my fair share of bad training slides from developers. Some of the slides give too much leeway or flexibility such that the training objective is affected. Some are poorly researched and lacked the right information.

To me, a training slide is no different from a presentation slide. It needs research, properly sequenced and meet its objectives.

There are a few important criteria to a good training program/slide. These are the criteria which i've upheld very strongly.

1. Objective - Every slide must serve an objective. These objectives can be obtained from the client.

2. Sequence - The slides must be properly sequenced. This sequence helps trainers to monitor the progress of his/her learners.

3. Standard - A developer has to set his/her standard in terms of the type of fonts, size of fonts and when to use them. Otherwise, we will see a wide variety of fonts being used on the different slides.

4. Research - No matter how much knowledge we have on any given topic, it does more good if we can just take an hour or 2 to just get a bit of information and examples from the net or even the library.

5. If there is no trainer guidebook, provide a trainer briefing. Trainers need to know what are the different objectives at a given time. This should be a requirement especially for sessions that stretch over many days.

6. Check before you hand over the slides to the trainer. Every time you refuse or ignore to check, you are likely to send your trainers and learners to their doom.

7. Be open to feedback. We learn from feedback. If you disliked learning, maybe training industry is not a right industry for you.


I think the above covers the main points. In your professional opinion, what makes a good training program?