Empowering the training officer

The training that is necessary and appropriate for the training officer himself is of several distinct kinds. Basic is the need to acquire knowledge and skill in the actual subject matter, the context of the training that he is giving, such as accountancy, engineering, marketing and so on. Again there is knowledge and skill in the design and conduct of the training processes, be they called didactic, experiential, discovery, or whatever. We might call the above the technical expertise that the trainer brings to his job — a detailed grasp of what to teach, how to teach, who, when, and where. And yet none of this expertise is of much use unless the decision‐making line managers will play their part in allowing, and helping, it to become effective in the form of training courses actually wanted. So there is another dimension to the trainer's job which is not about training as such, and one which he shares with a wide range of different staff specialists. It is to the task of increasing the trainer's effectiveness, to empowering him, in his dealings with line managers, that this brief article is addressed. And it will surprise a few readers to learn that I don't see the scope for this in augmenting or brushing up his technical skills.