After going through this topic, you will be able to:
— Prepare the logistics and deal with organizational issues for a short course.
— Organize resources (human, physical, financial) effectively and efficiently.
— Monitor the training event throughout the stages of planning, delivery and evaluation.
— Follow-up on a training event.
This is a very practical topic, which deals with the organization of short courses. Most course designers have a very good understanding of the educational concept and methodologies, which are needed to make training effective. There are many other factors, however, which will have an impact on the success of a training course, and can have a major influence on the satisfaction of participants, such as accommodation, travel arrangements, living allowance payments, food, even the organization of a social event. The World Agroforestry Centre has gained a lot of experience of organizing national, regional and international training events, and some useful tips and resources are presented here which should help you to prepare for almost every eventuality.
If you are training others in how to organize short courses, the focus should be on all the practicalities involved in this. To facilitate the tasks, checklists and tools for specific events can be developed. The best practice is to organize a short training event and keep a diary of what went well and what went wrong to help improve in the future. The more experience gained through practice, the better a course organizer will be able to deal with all eventualities.
What are the different steps/phases that need to be considered when organizing a training activity?
— Planning and preparation.
— Implementation and monitoring.
— Follow-up.
Which teams to create to assist with the organization of the course and to deal with content and logistic aspects related to it?
— Course coordination team.
— Technical or content committee responsible for content and quality control.
— Logistics committee responsible for overall logistic planning, organization and implementation.
What are the responsibilities of those involved in the technical committee?
— Course budget development.
— Aims, objectives/ learning outcomes and curriculum a guide for learning which integrates the philosophy and orientation of a trainingprogramme, expected learning outcomes, key content, methodology and evaluation for the teaching and learning process. design.
— Lesson planning and programme development.
— Participant identification and selection.
— Resource person identification.
— Training materials development.
— Delivery aspects and quality control.
— Participatory evaluation and assessment design.
What are the responsibilities of those involved in the logistics committee?
— Tracking course expenditure and accounting.
— Provision of information a source of data or sensory input, organized or arranged into a pattern which can be interpreted. to participants and resource persons.
— Facilitation of participant selection.
— Liaison with resource persons.
— Assisting in the training materials development and production process.
— Logistic aspects of course preparation and implementation.
— Implementing evaluation and assessment.
— Narrative and financial reporting.
— Course follow-up.
What activities need to be considered while implementing the course?
— Participant arrival.
— Course secretariat.
— Registration procedure.
— Course opening.
— Daily activities.
— Ice-breakers and energizers.
— Monitoring.
— The unexpected.
— Evaluation and assessment.
— Course closing.
What should be done after a course?
— Dealing with requests.
— Reporting.
— Providing feedback.
— Impact assessment.
Tips for trainers
— Planning, organizing and implementing a course requires some experienced and dedicated people organized to deal with content and logistics.
— Time and timing are of crucial importance in the organization of any training event.
— Use common sense and be flexible, there are no real hard and fast rules governing the planning, organization and implementation of a training event.
— The better prepared all involved are, the easier it will be to conduct the training.
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