|
 | Help |
| You are here: Rediff Home » India » Get Ahead » Transcript |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Advertisement | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Progressive organisations have realised that training their employees on a continuous basis is the only real way to stay ahead of the competition. This has resulted in a great demand for corporate trainers who can teach topics that people don't learn in their formal education, such as communication skills, business writing etiquette, public speaking, presentation skills and other job-specific functional and technical skills. Are you looking at a career in Corporate Training? Are you a functional expert in your field and want to transition into a career in training? Do you feel that you can share your expertise with others and get paid for it? Do you want to learn about the skills required to be a corporate trainer? Corporate training consultant Sunder Ramachandran from WCH Training Solutions fielded these queries and many more on October 1. For those of you who missed the chat, here's the unedited transcript:
yash Raj asked, Sir wat does it takes to be a corporate trainer Education or experience?
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Yash.Trainers should have excellent interpersonal skills, an ability to present themselves with confidence, speak before a large audience with conviction, a mature thought process to create training material relevant to their audience, spontaneity to respond to difficult situations with ease, a good sense of humour, loads of enthusiasm and most importantly a passion for the subject matter that is being presented. Education gives you discipline while experience would help you connect with your audience as a trainer. They both go hand in glove.
nmurali asked, what are the educational qualifications one require for being a corporate trainer?
sunder ramachandran answers, it would help if you have a masters degree in your area of specialisation. Good Trainers come from varied backgrounds and have diverse experience. What's more important to acquire skills required for training.
nidhi asked, how well does a career in corp training pay. can i give up my day job?
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Nidhi. Corporate Trainers are specialists and remunerated very well.There is a great need on behalf of corporations to improve the way their employees present themselves to the outside world and training them is the straightforward answer. Trainers have several options. They can work as in-house trainers with organisations, join a specialist training firm or even work as independent/freelance trainers.
rr asked, i work in a bpo in customer service. can i become a trainer?
sunder ramachandran answers, Yes you can. You can leverage the customer service and relationship building skills that you may have learnt in your job for transitioning into a training career.
Amit asked, What is better for career in term of money earning trainer or developer
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Amit. These are two completely different career options so I can't draw any comparisons.
sam asked, wat does being a corp trainer entail?
sunder ramachandran answers, Corporate trainers typically find themselves teaching topics that people don't learn in their formal education, such as communication skills, business writing etiquette, public speaking, presentation skills and other job-specific functional and technical skills.
RJ asked, Can you suggests some institutes who actually makes you polish to be a corp trainer?
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Rj. There are several academic institutions as well as Training & Consulting firms that offer certification and diploma programs in training. We are offering a 3-day workshop for trainers in New Delhi. The workshop is scheduled for Oct 5th, 6th, 7th. For details, you can write to us at info@wcholutions.com
CorpTrainer asked, Does Exp bypasses the needs of Degrees? Lets Say I am into IT for 8 Yrs and grown in my area, but have no Technical degree to support myself
sunder ramachandran answers, For functional and technical training, professional qualifications are important. As a matter of fact, you would be evaluated on your educational background.
hobbes asked, can a career in copr trenning be doen parttime?
sunder ramachandran answers, Corporate training is a serious career option. As long as your efforts are full time, the investment of just a 'part of your time' will suffice. However, don;t treat this as a weekend or an 'extra income generating' activity.
RameshCA asked, Hello Sunderji, I am a Chartered Accountant from Mumbai and have a post qualification experience of more than 5 years in Banking & Finance. Now, I would like to move to corporate training and would like to specialize in soft courses like stress management, personality development, Self Management, Leadership challenge etc. I have obtained certification as a facilitator from an academy based in UK. I also teach meditation and conduct such soft training courses as part of my spiritual activities. I already have the requisite content to present it to the junta. In last few years, I have already built the required facilitation skills thru attending trainings & prepared myself by obtaining certification etc. Would it be a good move to shift to corporate training? I am very passionate about it. Should I join some training company or should I start my own corp.training business? Or do you suggest that I should do some more courses before I jump into it? Thanks in advance.
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Ramesh, Thats fairly difficult to answer in this forum. Why dont you write to me at sunder@wchsolutions.com and we can discuss this in detail.
Preethi asked, what is mean by corporat training sir
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Preethi. Most professions today need certain specific skill sets that have to be learned in the classroom or through experience. While formal education provides a basic framework to all of us, we still need to invest time and effort in acquiring knowledge and functional skills specific to an industry. That's where professional trainers come into the picture. This process of knowledge transfer and facilitation of information is referred as corporate training.
ashokv asked, What r basic objectives that a corporate trainer must focus on? How a corporate trainer can undersatnd the requirements of training with the changing times?
sunder ramachandran answers, Training is effective only if it is business impacting. As a Trainer, you must partner with your client to understand their end goals. This could be increased sales, low attrition etc. Once you know what the expected results are, you can customise a solution for your client. In training, off the shelf method just does not work.
VIRGIL asked, What is your most memorable moment in your experience which you would like to share with us ?
sunder ramachandran answers, Well there are several. Training is fun and the trainers ends up learning the most in any training forum.
chroa asked, A. what are internet resources useful for corporate training career? B. and do you conduct any training for trainers? and c. How much it cost?
sunder ramachandran answers, For Train the Trainer program, you can refer to this link: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/sep/24iycu1.htm
Vishal asked, Hello Sunder, I am working in software industry for couple of years now the job which i am doing is not exciting.I am techincal geek very confident about teaching technical stuff to other's. My problem now is that i want to shift not as a full time corporate trainner.I want to work for some days as traineer evaluate and then think about it..!!!! but no one is ready to give me as a parttime trainner how should i go about it ?
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Vishal. This is a common challenge. You would only start getting assignments once people know about your area of expertise. Try contacting local training organisations and get a few assignments.
125 asked, hi sunder, im a communications professional with decades of experience in client servicing, etc. am pretty good at communications in english, verbal and written. what in your opinion are my options at getting into corporate training? thanks
sunder ramachandran answers, yes, you can use this experience. If you are also good at public speaking and have an understanding of 'How Adults learn'. You can transition as a corporate trainer.
ashokv asked, What homework does a corporate trainer should do b4 training anybody?
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi ashok. That's a good question. The lack of homework is a certain killer. One must study the participants demographic profile and also their work experince. A clear understanding of the business objectives behind the training intervention also helps.
RD10 asked, Hi,As a corporate trainer which is a better option as a career- to be freelancing and working on your own, OR to be part of the training and development dept. in a particular organisation? And how does one develop clients if they are freelancing?
sunder ramachandran answers, You can start by associating with training organisations to learn the business. Once you understand the buying behaviour of training and HR managers who outsource training, you could start doing your own business development as well. You need to be persistent.
SJ asked, Hi Sunder, what steps do you advice for measuring the post-training effectiveness of soft skills programs such as Time Management..
sunder ramachandran answers, I think the first step is to have a systematic pre training analysis in place. As an example, participants can identify the top 5 time wasters and then revisit the same list one week post training. If the indicators are the same, then you know how effective the training has been. Obviously this is not that simple. This is just an example but as a principle, you need to create a list of existing tangible behaviours and monitor change over a period of time.
kooolguy asked, i dont think a workshop would be of a lot of help, there needs to be some strong base if corporate training needs to be looked upon as a career option in India
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi. Corporate training is already looked at as a serious career option. There are several well established HR & Consulting firms that offer training support. As a matter of fact, trainers generally are fairly well networked and connected. There are several training networks and forums where professionals exchange ideas.
Urvesh asked, What is scope of e-learning ?
sunder ramachandran answers, E-learning is a powerful tool. When coupled with an instructor led program, it can give positive results. There is also a great demand for skilled instructional designers who can work with e-learning companies.
shivani asked, Hi Sunder , i have 6 years of work in sales of having worked with Fmcg and insurance co . i now want to change focus from sales to training. how can i do that when i dont have any exp in training . How do i best represent myself as how competent im to take up training assignemnt if and when it is offerd . Thanks ..
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Shivani.Corporate training is typically a job people come to after they've worked for a while and gained considerable experience. Your sales experience must have taught you valuable skills. Prepare a training profile or bio and start circulating it amongst training agencies and organisations. Once you start getting work in your ares of expertise, you can start upskilling yourself on other functional areas as well.
nivisri asked, Do you practice NLP in your training programs? Do you think one should be certified in NLP to bring about effectiveness in their training programs
sunder ramachandran answers, Hi Nivisri. NLP certification helps but is certainly not a ticket to success. Certification says nothing about quality or richness of experience and does not measure or reflect the hard-to-quantify characteristics that distinguish a 'seasoned trainer' from a novice. It is, however, a great 'starting point' for those relatively new to the field.
hinu asked, what scope does a fresher which great communication skills have a a trainer?
sunder ramachandran answers, There is no one method to become a trainer. In my experience so far, I have hardly seen any young professional articulating his ambition to become a trainer at the start of their career. Corporate training is typically a job people come to after they've worked for a while and gained considerable experience. If you have great communication skills, you could consider working with a senior trainer and then eventually start leading programs once you are confident of going solo.
sunder ramachandran says, Thanks for joining the chat everyone. This is all we have time for, today. Until next time, goodbye. You can reach me at sunder@wchsolutions.com
 Email this Article  Print this Article |
|
|
| © 2007 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Feedback |