No matter where you are in your training and development career, everyone could use a refresher course. ASTD Houston began providing just such an opportunity through its ASTD Houston Trainer Basics course on January 23, 2009. As the first course in a proposed series of these workshops, the day-long event facilitated by Jay Clancy of Strategic Ascent, LLC concentrated on discussing standard concepts, terminology, and trends in professional training.
I attended that day as a means for "sharpening my saw" and getting more exposure to the systematic processes for designing and implementing effective training.
The course was enlightening, fun, and well worth the time. Jay was a great facilitator who used all of the best training techniques to keep us engaged and learning. We didn't just sit and listen to lectures all day, we used brainstorming techniques, skits, and games to drive the concepts home and keep us involved in the learning. I believe that all of the participants - no matter how many years of experience in the training game - came away learning new things that day and gaining important insights into how to continue evolving their training and development techniques. Additionally, each of us were provided three awesome ASTD reference books (Trainer Basics, Training Design Basics, and Facilitation Basics) to take home and add to our arsenal of resources.
The next ASTD Trainer Basics course should be coming up soon and I encourage everyone to consider signing up and joining me to hone your skills and enjoy a day of laid back networking.
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