Do IT Trainers deserve Michelin stars?

05 Jan 2010 Leave a comment

by Sheena in Cooking, Excel, Michelin stars, Training

I love cooking.  And eating.  That the two are intrinsically related to each other is a source of infinite joy.  But what on earth does that have to do with IT training?

Well.  IT trainers are often presented with random mix of ingredients and are then expected to put them together and produce an end result to suit everyone.

Take your average Excel Intermediate course.  Despite all your best efforts as a trainer, you know damn well that you will end up with 8 delegates (usually at least 2 more than you were told to expect) of wildly differing skill levels, ability and enthusiasm.

They’ve all been supplied with a menu (course outline) which they have studiously gone through, picking up the items they each want from their training smorgasbord, with no idea of how they knit together.

You, as the trainer, now have to determine how to mix the following together:

The total beginner, who needs the basics firming up before being able to cope with anything more than simple calculations in Excel, let alone lookups and pivot tables.

The daily user, who uses 10% of the product 90% of the time, and needs to understand how formulas are put together, edited and combined before moving onto logical statements and custom charting.

The power user, who everyone asks for help, because ‘they know everything’, and is a bit resentful of having to attend anyway – even though you know there will be multiple topics they can use and improve on.

You reach into your store cupboard for your basic ingredients – formulas, charts, formatting, editing, and you start putting together a ‘menu’ in your head to suit everyone.

Not too much spice to scare off the beginners, but enough to keep the ‘experts’ interested.  They are expecting beef consomme, and all you have is an Oxo cube to start things off.

You chop and mix your ingredients to provide them with a fabulous menu which covers as much of their smorgasbord items as you can, with flair, and great presentation.

So, do IT trainers deserve Michelin stars?  Maybe not quite, but I think we’re pretty close.