ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the strategies that educators can use to develop the communication and presentation skills of on the job and full-time technical trainers, as they deal with their changing roles. Trainers are typically required to implement training programmes with which they have had little involvement. One of the greatest pressures on workplace trainers is the lack of adequate time to plan and prepare. Training is often responsive to immediate workplace needs, and trainers themselves tend to be employees with pressing operational responsibilities and deadlines. Typical 'Train the Trainer' courses consist of a two or three day workshop - often over sequential days - dealing with different methods of instruction. In a lecture-type format, participants are shown ways of analysing a task, developing learning outcomes and a logical training sequence. Apart from their key role in developing employee's skills, workplace trainers often have a good understanding of their organisation's culture, formal and informal networks.
