Since I started writing this blog last year, whenever I speak with another trainer or someone who works in the training industry I ask them about ideas for blog posts. Sometimes when I hit a writer’s block, I shoot an email out to one or two of these colleagues for advice. This week, I was talking with a friend and asked for blog ideas. Her idea: what should a student do after training?
I thought about her blog idea. The after-training part of the process is out of the trainer’s hand. It is the area where we, as trainers, can give recommendations but do not have any control over, as we do in the classroom activities. It is an important part of the training process, though.
If the training is going to “stick”, then the student needs to do a few things after the actual training session. The classroom training is definitely the time where most of the initial learning takes place, but after the session, the student can do a few things that will really help the retention of the information. The corporations that purchase the training can contribute to the retention of the training that they pay for by allowing students to do these after-training activities.
The first of these activities is to review any notes, books, handouts, or learning guides from the training. Just looking and reading over these items will help you remember things from the training, especially the hints and tips that you might have jotted down. If I’ve been in a training class on a Friday and go back over my notes on Monday, I usually see something that I had forgotten that I had written down.
Next, it is very important to allot time to practice what you have learned. In the ideal world, you will have learned things that you will apply immediately on the job. However, in the real world, you may not be using all of what you learned right away. In that instance, it is good to practice what you learned so that you’ll remember it when the time comes to use it. This is where the corporation can help by allowing time for the students to have a bit of time to practice after the training. One option is to take about 15 minutes once a day to review a specific concept. The repetition will help you retain what you learned.
Finally, the best way to ensure that the concepts you learn will stay in your memory is to teach someone else what you learned. If you can teach someone else, then you have shown that you have a mastery of the skills/concepts that were covered in the training class. And, what a better way to help yourself, someone else, and your corporation than by improving someone’s efficiency or increasing their knowledge.
I know, downsizing and training aren’t usually put together. Most corporations do not invest the extra money in training workers they are letting go. That is why I was surprised to be talking to my clients during a recent morning training session and find out that their whole department will not exist in a couple of months. 
I ran across a quote that really made me stop and think recently. It isn’t a new quote from someone in the current age but it still applies, I think. Actually, that is what made me think more about it. I was impressed by how many years later it still applies to our modern lives.
In my reading, I ran across a great quote that really got me to thinking about training and its costs/benefits. The article was by a workshop facilitator who said something that I had heard before but was glad to be reminded of again. Her statement was, “What if you train them and they leave? What if you don’t and they stay?” 
When some organizations think about providing training for their employees, they sometimes worry about the logistics of having the training on-site. What they usually find out is that they needn’t have worried at all. You don’t need to have a dedicated training room to have a successful training class on-site. The training room setup can prove to be very simple.
