Training Follow-up

Successful training events always integrate follow-up to provide further support, skill development, and continuous improvement to promote new practise. Trainers responsible for the training plans will benefit from this discussion of the need for a connexion between new learning and a process of ongoing learning and feedback. This is important especially for further development of solid teaching practise and approaches to supervision (KNAPP-PHILO 2007). Whereas evaluation of the training course takes place during the training itself, follow-up on trainings comes after the training and is often combined with quality control assessment (see figure).

(Adapted from RAE 2004)

An effective follow-up phase includes several dimensions:

1. Determining what the participants have learned during the course
2. Giving the learners time to reflect on their learning prior to their completion of the post-training personal action plan
3. Getting useful feedback in an organised manner to help with future training planning
4. Ensuring trainees and learners follow up their training with relevant actions to apply, improve, develop and reinforce learning attained.

1. Ask each participant to email you a brief summary of the three most important points they learned in the training. Let a few weeks pass and then email the responses to the group, along with any additional feedback that has occurred in the meantime. This will give you an opportunity to reinforce what was learned a second time.
2. Send out a quiz related to the training’s content several weeks after the initial session. Post the responses and award a prize for the “best” answers. The quiz can be either multiple choice or free answer.
3. A week after the training, ask participants what new skill or technique they have tried based on the materials covered in the training. When appropriate, post the anecdotes in a public place or mass email. Be sure to solicit feedback as to what worked well, what did not go as smoothly, and what additional training is needed.
4. At the close of the training, ask each participant to commit to trying 1-3 new skills from the program. Ask them to write them down, and let them know that the group will get back together to follow up and discuss techniques tried. Next, schedule a follow-up session. You may want to facilitate this meeting yourself or bring back the program’s trainer. Be an active partner in the training process. Remember, people gain new skills when they see others doing the same, when they see value in those skills, and when motivated with incentives to do so.
5. You can organise a “keep on doing” session. To do this, you could invite your participants to exchange what they have done after the training (e.g. a year after the training has taken place). Let them tell whether the training was useful or not useful for their career. This will also engage the fellow trainees to work further.
6. The other way to do the follow-up is to get help of internet platforms. Create a platform and invite participants to join it. Initiate discussions regarding the topic and thereby keep in touch with the activities they are doing.

• Further measure effectiveness of training
• Long-term evaluation: Measure change in behaviour, knowledge and attitudes
• Quality control: Make sure that participants are implementing correctly
• Solicit additional feedback on training
• Provision additional training
• Answers questions and clarifies original lessons
• Gives more specific advice and more relevant demonstrations
• Follow-up on action plan
• Check benchmarks and milestones in action plan