Presentation vs. Training 3

[zdas04]

I recently had an audition for a teaching position at a well known training company. My instructions were to prepare a 15 minute presentation on any subject of my choosing. Since it was a training gig, I pulled 15 min of information from my 2-day course. The course is intended to be instructional.

At the end of all the auditions, one of the senior instructors said "At [this company] we never do presentations, we transfer information". He said it like his words had some profound meaning. I would have just blown past it, but at my last class one of the course evaluations said that the class felt more like a "presentation than a class".

Does anyone have any ideas as to how a "presentation" becomes "training" and what the difference is?

David

 

[Compositepro]

Look into technical societies related to your subject matter. They often offer training and tutorials. They need people to create and give these courses. They take a cut for marketing and perhaps providing the classroom at a conference. A 5-day course is pretty serious and some colleges offer these to working professionals.

 

[zdas04]

I'm boycotting SPE right now (I spent a couple of hundred hours organizing a conference, Chairing it, and doing a bunch of the presentations and realized that after all that I still had to pay admission, I havent' been to one of their events since). I may look into ASME. They do a bunch of training.

David

 

[oldfieldguy]

"- tell them what you will say,- tell them,- tell them what you said,"

Or the version given in "Techniques of Military Instruction" circa 1970:

1. Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em.
2. Tell 'em.
3. Tell 'em what you told 'em.
4. Test 'em.

Leave out Step 4 and it's a presentation.

old field guy

 

[grockj]

I see this as pretty black and white, as in I've received training that did not require me to participate.

Presentation is showing "what"

Training is showing "how"

Presentations explain you or some work you did, some "thing" to the listener

Training empowers the listener to reproduce, replicate, or DO what you have discussed.

I do not personally believe this requires responsive/interactive styles. I've had quite a bit of training that was presentative in nature. However, I will say that training of this sort is of minimal effectiveness unless I have someone back at home base who is well versed to answer questions I may have if I get stuck.

The testing/quizzing/participation is, simply, a time tested way to make sure the people "got it."