I have been a trainer for almost 10 years and companies often ask for feedback on my training courses from participants but barely anyone every asks me for feedback on participants!
I have a lot I could tell.
In advance of the sessions, participants fill in training needs forms.
There are those that do not spell their email address (or name!) correctly – does this show a lack of attention to detail?
There is a free-form section where people can specify what they would like to focus on, do those that write nothing, show a lack of interest in the training? Versus those that are really specific and really want to improve efficiencies in their work.
During the sessions, there are those that arrive late without notifying me in advance and then don’t understand why they don’t know what they are doing, but then there are those that arrive a few minutes early to check their tech is working and ask such great questions that they have prepared in advance.
There are those that say, “I wish I had asked for training earlier as I am going to save so much time” versus those that are monosyllabic as they have been told to go on a training course and have taken offense.
Then there are those that ask, “are we going to do anything more complicated?” only to fail to complete the next task they are set as they couldn’t remember what to do!
Then there are those that say “this is going to change my life” with such excitement on their faces and genuine enthusiasm for applying the theory into practice. Surely these are the employees companies want to keep!
But whilst most companies do not ask for feedback on the participants… then what goes on in training, stays in training!
