After talking with a couple of people last week about one-to-one training, I realized that some people do not know how useful this type of training is. After almost every one-to-one (sometimes called deskside) training session I’ve done for the first time with someone, they tell me how much they wish they had known about that type of training long ago! I guess that since I’ve been doing this type of training for years, I figured that everyone was aware of customized one-on-one deskside training. That’s what I get for assuming…
My one-to-one Versitas training session last week was a great example of how beneficial this type of training can be for a person (and for a company). The training was actually one-on-two since there were two people from one company that I trained at the same time. One person was at her desk computer and the other brought her laptop. The setup was very quick and easy.
I sat where I could see both screens. The focus of the training was Excel so we worked on their own spreadsheet files. One of the comments I received from them was how nice it was to use their own files instead of example files. Everything we covered was completely relevant and applicable to their jobs.
Our main focus was formulas and functions, but we also covered a few math concepts, too, to make sense of the formulas. We would never have been able to do that type of customization in a big class. Both of the students were delighted that we could address all of the questions right on their very own files.
The person who designed the spreadsheets did quite a bit of linking and complex formulas. After a basic explanation of Excel formulas, we went through most of the formulas on the spreadsheets that they didn’t understand. They caught on quickly and soon they were creating some complex formulas themselves.
Both of the students told me how much they liked the completely customized training session. One of them said that she had gotten more out of the first hour of our session than out of any of her past Excel classes. She was excited to be able to now take some of the work off of her supervisor’s already overloaded shoulders. I truly believe that the training was a great benefit to both the students and their company.
I am hoping that this post will help spread the word about the value of one-to-one training sessions. Try it - you may never want to sit through a full day class again!
