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The first article in this series outlined a range of options which the social skills trainer has when deciding how to design and run his training programmes. We also emphasised that there was no need for the trainer to attach himself too rigidly to one approach and that during a single training event he could give his course members the opportunity to learn through ‘thinking’, ‘doing’ and ‘feeling’. The second article concentrated on the crucial nature of feedback in social skills training, exploring different types of feedback and looking at the different ways in which it could be given. This third and final article describes the skills which the trainer needs to acquire and develop, and looks at the responsibilities he is likely to have. The points we make apply particularly to the types of courses which are based largely on a ‘feelings’ approach and which in broad terms are concerned to examine the nature of the relationships between the course members. However, we believe that the article will be of interest to anybody who has an interest in social skills training.

“Articles have been written, and will continue to be published, about the variety of methods and techniques available to the trainer and the new technologies which relate to the job he must perform. Insufficient attention has been given to the trainer — the trainer as a person. We must devote more of our energies to the consideration of what we expect of this person we call a trainer if the development of manpower resources is to achieve the purposes which are essential in an industrial society.”

Trainers are no longer mere providers of activities; their role is increasingly to add value to organizational learning as the foundation for future competitiveness. However some trainers may feel inadequately empowered to do so. This paper considers how the attitudes, feelings, and experiences of three trainers affected their role of change‐maker, within one particular training program. These issues were explored through a questionnaire completed at the end of the delivery cycle. The results suggest more account of trainers’ belief systems may be necessary if change management objectives are to be credibly and consistently achieved. As such employers, managers, and peers, as well as the individual all have a part to play in enabling trainer empowerment as a bedrock for organizational change‐making, but strategies must take account of the cultural environment within which the organization is located.

Many articles have been written in recent years on trainers' roles. However, much of what has been written was often prescriptive. Besides, the suggestion has often been made that trainers need to operate as change agents within their organisations. Yet, only in very few instances had there been serious attempts to look closely into the prescription of a change agent role and the varying realities which confront trainers within their organisations. Even then such studies have been limited to the developed countries of Western Europe and America.

Being effective is more than just having good ideas. You've got to be able to put those ideas into practice and, more important, those ideas must be relevant to the needs of the organisation. In this company, the previous approach to training was highly programmed. Courses were scheduled in a number of topic areas, nomination forms sent out, participants registered and trainers booked. It was so highly programmed you could tell which participant was doing what particular session on which course at any given moment. This was a successful approach but times have changed. We now need trainers to become more actively involved in helping and supporting line managers. In trying to put across this view, I came across some resistance, particularly from my immediate boss. I recognised that I had to start playing the politics game. I was able to set up an informal relationship with the chairman, who although not supporting my approach in writing, took every available opportunity to support it verbally. But this was not until I had demonstrated the relevance of my approach by talking in the language of the business, for example, costing out training activities and showing that they could be cost‐effective. My aim was actively to convince managers about the real value of training by demonstrating actual situations where training would have saved the organisation money. For example, I have collected statistics about the cost involved when company engineers lost time due to inadequate knowledge of new products when servicing equipment. It's taken me several years to convince people that the approach is relevant to the situation we are now facing, but I think I have got there.

Within a context of trainer training, examines a powerful exercise to encourage trainers to reflect on their role and effectiveness within their organizations. Describes how participants are asked to draw a “picture” of the “ideal trainer”. Symbols, images and metaphors can be very illuminating in helping us deal with complexity and to communicate our thoughts and ideas. Illustrates three versions of the “ideal trainer” and explores how the images and symbols used can facilitate highly pertinent discussions on trainer development. Links can be more readily made to current models of trainer role and to the ongoing debate about “competences” and attention focused on how best to equip trainers to intervene effectively within their organizations. Using images and symbols to depict the ideal trainer, trainers and trainee trainers are better placed to see where they are and how they could develop.

Police training is in a period of transition, requiring new recruits to already have, or work towards, a policing degree. However, recruitment procedures have not significantly changed in the past few decades. With psychometric testing commonplace in North America and Australasia to help ensure the right recruits are selected, this research seeks to understand if police trainers feel there is scope for a similar process in the United Kingdom (UK).

Twenty-five police training staff across four different police forces took part in a total of six focus groups to discuss views on this and other areas of recruitment.

Results indicated that police trainers are concerned about the quality and aptitude of recruits. Support was given for the introduction of formal psychometric testing to prevent unsuitable candidates from successfully joining and/or to give trainers better insight into the personalities of their students.

There was general concern from female trainers that the police environment new recruits entered still bore elements of covert sexism. Trainers' views on reforms to police recruitment, the implications of this and areas for future study are discussed.

Fitness service companies often promote the companies' personal training service by attributing trainers' competent characteristics, qualifications or/and service provision to their effort or talent. This promotion is called performance attribution promotion. Utilizing attribution theory and the theory's adjacent studies, this study investigated whether and why performance attribution promotion affects consumers' service purchase of personal fitness training.

The authors developed the experimental stimuli of performance attribution promotion and validated those through a pretest (N = 200). Using the validated stimuli, the authors conducted an experiment with employing a single factor between-subject design (performance attribution promotion: effort vs talent) based on random assignment (N = 200).

The analysis results revealed that attributing trainers' competent characteristics, qualifications or/and service provision to effort (vs talent) leads to a higher level of service registration intention. Moreover, this effect was mediated by the perceived teaching expertise but not by the perceived teaching trustworthiness.

These findings enrich the literature by illuminating a new mechanism and consequence of performance attribution promotion. The authors' study also extends the marketing studies related to expertise perception by presenting the attribution of visible features as one of the characteristics determining expertise perception. Finally, the authors' findings also have implications for fitness service companies and other stakeholders that seek to effectively leverage trainers' competent outcomes for consumer acquisition.

Training cannot be effective if trainers are not pedagogically competent. However, the influence of trainers’ pedagogical competencies on employees’ knowledge and skill acquisition during training is not given the needed attention in the training literature. This study aims to examine the influence of trainers’ pedagogical competencies such as delivery, trainees’ involvement, use of visual aids and body language on trainees’ assimilation of training content.

The data are analyzed from 425 respondents in an online survey. This study uses structural equation modeling in testing the hypotheses following validity and reliability tests.

This study finds that trainers’ pedagogical competencies such as trainee involvement and body language have a significant influence on trainees’ assimilation of training content, but others such as the trainers’ delivery and use of visual aids do not have a significant influence on assimilation of training content.

Professionals responsible for training should endeavor to use trainers who have been proven to be pedagogically competent, especially involving trainees during training and use of body language and not just experts in the topics/areas they provide training. Trainers themselves should on their part do well to acquire pedagogical skills in addition to the content knowledge they possess to enhance their training effectiveness particularly, trainees’ assimilation of training content.

As a phenomenon rarely given attention, this study urges learning and development researchers and practitioners as well as human resource management professionals to give attention to the pedagogical competencies of trainers during training and trainees’ learning.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers differed in the variety of instructional methods and in their emphasis on interpersonal relations and interactions, group management and communication. Those trainers with train-the-trainer certificates did not differ significantly from those who did not have them. Trainers with a university degree in educational science/psychology were more likely to teach soft skills than hard skills but did not agree more with the relevance of instructional skills and knowledge than those without such a degree.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The review is based on “Perceived instructional requirements of hard skills trainers and soft skills” by S. Wisshack and S. Hochholdinger, published in Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal.