The first part of delivering any training is to design and develop the training program itself. This requires defining what training is needed, what VET policies apply to the training, and what needs the learners have before the training package can be developed. There may already be a training package available that can be used as the base for designing and developing the training program needed, thereby reducing the amount of work needed to create it.

Australia’s VET program is unique in that it provides a lot of resources to the trainer, specifically in defining what is needed in a training program, so that the learners can receive a certification for their knowledge in skills. However, this requires that the trainer knows and understands the VET system, its documentation and how to use it.

Marci was hired into the HR department of a small, but growing manufacturing company. In addition to her normal duties, she was informed that she was going to have to become involved in designing and delivering training programs to the employees of the company. Her area of training responsibility included all the office workers, from clerical to support positions. The only problem was that Marci wasn’t trained in being a trainer, she didn’t have any idea what to do.

Fortunately for Marci, her supervisor had anticipated this and teamed her up with a more experienced worker to get her started on developing training. This worker had received their TAE40116 Certificate IV, so she was familiar with what needed to be done.

Marci’s mentor, whose name was Sue, dug out her coursework for her TAEDES401 course in Designing and Developing Learning Programs. She spent some time with Marci, going over what she had learned in that course, showing her how to find out what was needed to put together a training program and how to read a unit. She was able to pass on a lot of the information that she learned, giving Marci a good starting point for developing her own training.

Sue continued to work with Marci, guiding her step-by-step through the process of developing her training program, right up to giving her first training sessions. With Sue’s help, Marci didn’t feel so lost and was able to create training material that was helpful to her company and increased the abilities of the workers that she had responsibility for.

After giving her first training session, Marci was able to look back over the previous months, amazed about how much she had learned. She was supposed to be giving a training program to others but wondered if she wasn’t the one who was being trained. Although she had never been required to develop training before, she felt that she now had a pretty good understanding of what was required to do so. She went back to her supervisor and asked if she could be evaluated for having completed the TAEDES401 course in designing and developing learning programs.

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