Training Development

Check Your Progress

If the design phase of training is like creating a blueprint for a house, the development phase is the actual hammer-and-nails construction. You know what you want to build and how you want to build it. Now you must take the right materials and build a solid structure. Just as with a house, you should consider how occupants will use and navigate through your training structure.

From The Field:
Training in India

For a successful training, trainers must plan ahead and develop their notes and training methods well before a training begins. Two tools have helped trainers prepare for a "training-of-trainers" (TOT) course for physicians at Tambaram Hospital of Thoracic Medicine in Chennai, India: Training Planning Template and Sample Presentation.

The planning template is a training development tool used by trainers themselves as they prepare for their own individual sessions. It provides an organisational framework to assist trainers in clearly identifying who the training is for, why the training is important, what the target learners need to learn, when and where the training is to be held, and what content and methods are to be used during their training session. The second tool used by the Tambaram trainers provided detailed information to them about what to do at each step of their training session. This tool gave detailed "HOW TOs" to the Tambaram trainers so they would be prepared to train the physicians in their workshop to be motivated to learn and ready to set a positive tone.

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Creating Curricula

Developing training involves writing materials, creating learning exercises, and working with content experts and trainers. It is the most time-consuming phase of training; draft materials may go through multiple revisions, involving several people, before they are ready for training use.

As you progress through this development phase, be sure the training materials and exercises match the learning outcomes you identified in the design phase, which are based on your needs assessment. All subsequent training phases should reflect these outcomes.

This section on training development provides resources in three major areas: Developing Materials, Developing Presentations, and Graphics and Images. The last area includes graphic images, maps and PowerPoint backgrounds to use in creating materials. Also check out the Online Resources available on training development.

Also included in this section on training development is a From the Field example of how to use a few of the tools to develop training. Don't forget to monitor your ongoing progress by clicking on Chart your Progress.

NOTE: Conducting an evaluation after completing each step of the training process will help you provide your target audience with the best training possible. See the Process Evaluation forms available in the Evaluation section of the Toolkit to help you evaluate the development phase of your training.