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Avoid these pitfalls to improve your training organisation!

Everyday Arlo’s training management system helps a range of training providers promote, sell and deliver their courses. We have a variety of clients using many different processes, however they all have the same goal, to scale.

A couple of our team recently went to a course for training. What we discovered was an eye-opener, let us share our experience of attending recent training.

Communication before the course is key!

Providing registrants accurate and helpful information before a course is vital to their experience and your success. Upon registering for our course, we received delayed confirmation with inaccurate time details. The course finished considerably earlier then instructed. This left us feeling unsure regarding our registration status prior to the course. It was also an inconvenience for attendees who based their transport on the times originally given. Our expectations weren’t met either as we felt short-changed after finishing early yet still paying a large amount in fees.

With Arlo, registration communication is automated. The information is tailored to the registrant providing accurate details on what, where and when they have registered for. Learn more about Arlo communication.

Attendees to your courses are paying for what you told them they would receive. Providing any less than that is inviting a negative reflection on your business. At the very minimum meet the expectations which your registrants have paid for!

Prerequisites allow increased learning potential

Prior to our course we were casually directed to reading material and exercises to complete for the course. Although we are busy at Arlo, we recognized the importance of completing this to achieve better outsomes. However, it seemed like the casualness of the invite to prepare meant that many in the course did not attempt the prerequisite material. Therefore, a large part of the course was spent catching up on that material. This left other attendees covering already known material. With course fees, travel costs, accommodation and the return on investment expectations this experience left a lot to be desired.

Formally asking registrants to cover some prerequisite material is asking of their time. Although this can seem a burden, most registrants will appreciate the heads up. It shows that you want them to achieve success and learn. This sets the expectation that prerequisite material is required for attendance. It also lessens the chances of some registrants getting bored by covering known information. Do not take for granted the financial and opportunity cost your registrants take to attend your course. With these costs come return on investment expectations, personal growth and knowledge. Not delivering a satisfactory ROI will negatively affect your reputation.

Course outlines and objectives increase expectation and excitement

Until we began the course we could only guess what we would be covering. We expected some information on what we would be achieving for what we were paying and for what our business goals were. Receiving this information would also have increased our motivation. We would have looked into the topics, as well as considered how they were going to be used at Arlo. Produce course outlines and deliver on the expectations you set.

In this article we have covered the pitfalls one can fall into prior to the course. Next month we will examine what not to do on the day of your course! Make sure you read this to increase your chance of success!