Whether you are a practising or an aspiring trainer, it is important to know what makes a successful trainer. Here is a sharing from the APTS family that you will find useful.

Who

The training profession is one of the most attractive career switch options for two groups of people –

Practitioners across all industries including healthcare, engineering, banking, IT and MICE. These are usually managers or specialists with several years of experience. Their key asset is the valuable expertise in highly practical (as compared to theoretical) soft skills or technical skills which are sought after by organisations hungry for growth. One main attraction to go into professional training is hence the satisfaction gained from being able to impact people from beyond just a single company they had worked for. And better still, it comes with a focused and narrower scope of work which is meaningful and passion driven.

Educators from both private and public sectors. Years of teaching contribute to the high confidence in presentation as well as classroom management. Most of them are also truly passionate in sharing their knowledge. However demanding non-teaching related admin work as well as conservative and cumbersome policies had rendered them ineffective and thus dissatisfied with work. Training as a professional  enables them to infuse their own philosophy and methodology while significantly reduces unrelated admin work.

Why the Training Career

To many who have chosen this path, the flexibility in work hours ranks as a top reason. That means the ability to spend more time watching their children or grandchildren grow up, catching up with friends, enjoying their hobbies and pursuing other interests or causes. And all these may not necessarily involve a pay cut as a day of training can be a few thousand dollars in fee. Of course preparation work is involved but the time required to do so gets shorter with experience. One more reason why this profession is well loved is simply the immense satisfaction gained from being able to make a positive difference to lives. And that is readily felt when the participants literally queue up to thank you at the end of each training session. In contrast, you will be considered lucky if you receive a heartfelt thanks in the typical workplace. Helping others brings one of the greatest fulfillment in our lives – and the training professional is all about that.

Not for Everyone

Having mentioned the key attractions, training however is not for everyone. First, whether you are setting up your own training company or training for others as a freelancer, this profession is like running a business. If you are not mentally prepared to live without a fixed monthly salary and to market yourself in order to secure training assignments, this is not for you. Second, if you do not really like to work with people, you will not sustain let alone succeed in this profession. Training requires a genuine concern for the people we train and a willingness to bring out the best in them regardless of their shortcomings. It is no place for superficial performers or entertainers. Finally, lifelong learning is not something that trainers just talk about, but lived by. If you do not a have quest for learning, refrain from becoming a trainer. The world is changing and so are knowledge, methods and solutions. The only way we can remain relevant is to keep on learning.

Getting Started

If you have reached this point and are still keen to explore the training profession, here are some important and useful steps to get you started.

Identify Your Subject Expertise
Identify one subject that you are confident to train in and have relevant track record or achievements. No one likes to listen to a trainer who is simply conveying what he has read elsewhere. Break the subject into sessions of different duration from 1-hour talks to 3-day workshops.

Join Training Communities
Join good communities of trainers to learn as well as share resources and opportunities. Such communities are aplenty from numerous online networks to the exclusive government-supported Institute of Adult Learning (IAL). Of course, we welcome you to join the APTS family where our mission is to help our members be successful instead of being profit or power driven. See the benefits here.

Be Trained Yourself
Yes, trainers should undergo good training before training others. There are a few Train-the-Trainer programmes available and you should know what you want to get out of it before committing the time and money. If you seek to become an effective and admired trainer, the Professional Certificate in Training (PCT) Programme is a good choice. Read more here.

You Can

Embarking on the training profession is indeed an exciting, though at times fearful, journey. Done correctly, it can be really rewarding and fulfilling for you. If you have questions or would like to fast track into this career, we will be more than happy to help you as we were there before. In APTS, you will not walk alone.

To join us, download the application form here.