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This lesson focuses on the importance of assessments in training, demonstrating how to effectively evaluate both soft and hard skills, and explaining how this process helps validate and improve the training effectiveness and the trainer’s approach
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1.05 Train the Trainer Basics - Exercise.docx65.3 KB
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Using Assessment to Evaluate Trainees - and Yourself
Challenges in Assessing Soft Skills:
- There is a common misconception that soft skills, such as public speaking, cannot be effectively tested due to their subjective nature.
- Many trainers focus on preparing trainees to pass exams without having personally taken the test themselves, which can disconnect the training from practical outcomes.
Innovative Assessment Techniques:
- To assess soft skills effectively, trainers should design assessments that measure tangible outcomes rather than subjective impressions.
- For public speaking, an example is to:
- Have trainees identify key ideas they want the audience to remember and then assess recall after a practice session.
- Instead of asking whether an audience liked a speech, ask them to recall key points to gauge the speaker's clarity and effectiveness.
- If key ideas are not being recalled as intended, it indicates areas where further training is needed.
Benefits of Measurable Outcomes:
- Using measurement and tools like video can help provide concrete evidence of a trainee's skills and areas for improvement.
- Regular testing before and after training sessions enhances the credibility of training programs by demonstrating measurable skill improvements.
Enhancing Training Department Credibility:
- By proving that soft skills can be tested and improved, training departments can gain more respect and recognition within an organization.
- Building accountability among trainees through clear, measurable outcomes raises the profile and perceived value of the training provided.
- 00:04 Many trainers train people on how to pass tests and yet they don't test themselves.
- 00:10 I'm a huge, huge fan of testing and there are so many aspects
- 00:16 of professional development that are in this category of so-called soft skills. Oh, it can't be
- 00:22 tested. It's just kind of touchy-feely. Wrong. For example, in
- 00:29 my own specialty of public speaking. People always act like you can't test it. It's a
- 00:35 soft skill. I say absolutely not. If you want to make sure someone
- 00:41 has learned, been properly trained on how to speak. It's very easy to test. You have them decide
- 00:47 in advance what their handful of key ideas are that they want their audience to remember. And then
- 00:53 you have them speak. In front of a few colleagues the day before their real speech. When they're done,
- 00:59 you don't ask what do you like about the speech. You ask them "What do you remember?"
- 01:06 And if that person you're testing can't tell you all five of your most important ideas,
- 01:12 it means you did not pass. If they remembered all five of five, it means you got a hundred
- 01:19 percent, you succeed. That's just one example. If you really think about it, I don't care what skill
- 01:25 it is, whether it is, mountain climbing, rock climbing, creating new
- 01:31 chemical compounds, whatever the skill is you're teaching people, it can be tested
- 01:38 if you give it enough thought and if you measure it and if you record it, one way obviously is through
- 01:44 video recording and testing it with outside people. But give this real thought. This is one reason I
- 01:50 believe many people in the training departments of major corporations and organizations
- 01:56 are not given as much respect as people say in the finance department. We
- 02:02 let people define us as loosey goosey soft skills sort of squishy.
- 02:09 So the more we can test people before and after they go through our trainings,
- 02:15 the more people will respect us and the more accountable everyone will be. We'll be
- 02:21 more accountable but also the trainees.
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