I am in the middle of running a Certificate IV in Training & Assessment….my way.

This generally means that I’m teaching people to actually train, and train well…rather than understand the bureaucracy that is the AQF/AQTF. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do teach what is necessary and written in the competencies, but I do have a strong focus on delivery because I want to be able to put my hand on my heart, for all of my graduates, and say that they can stand and deliver….and get their participants to stay and play.

Today was a delivery day. The group had to present a 20 minute piece which was largely a chance to demonstrate their understanding and use of the 4-mat model in training design and delivery. Not only did they nail it, but they also demonstrated stuff that I did not teach them. Stuff that I consider “advanced”. Stuff like:

• Stage anchoring - marking out parts of the stage and eliciting different responses from the group, consistently, when standing on particular parts of the “stage’.
• State elicitation - being able to elicit states from the group, and then pace and lead them to other states.
• Utilisation - using what exists in the room, or what happens in the room even when it’s unexpected and somewhat unrelated.

I’m sure there was much more that I did not consciously notice, however these were the things that blew my mind!

As I said, I generally teach these specific techniques in advanced courses…..however I use these techniques all the time in my own delivery……so, this begs the question…

How did they learn them?

Was it unconscious modeling? I reckon that’s the case.

Please excuse what may be a bit of blowing my own trumpet, but I was pretty proud of the sessions delivered today, and I am publicly willing to say, that at this point in their training, they are demonstrating skills that would make seasoned trainers envious.