We don't know how long the COVID pandemic is going to go on for but what we do know is that now is a great time for organisations to deliver effective internal remote training. 

Furloughed workers are unable to work, but they can learn, which gives organisations fantastic opportunities to enhance the skills of their people and spread their knowledge within the organisation. There is potentially a long period that employers can take advantage of to upskill their staff, and the challenge here is to make sure people have a positive experience with virtual learning and are not turned off by it. 

With this in mind, we thought it would be helpful to share our tried and tested, fully explained, failsafe method of delivering virtual training.

Based on the 4mat model, it is an adaptation which pleases the four distinct learning types (Innovative, Analytic, Common Sense, and Dynamic) and is a systematic way to train all learners in the way they like to learn.

When designing our virtual training and introducing topics virtually, our model looks like this:

• Give it purpose - Describe why this is important
  
  
• Give it context - Describe what the topic is and where it fits
  
  
• Practice it - Show and talk about how they can use it in theory
  
  
• Apply it - How do we use this in real life
  
  

An Example in Context

Say we are running a virtual 'Train the Virtual Trainer' course remotely, and we want to train the participants on the interactive tools they have at their disposal and that they could use in their training.

In short, we would:

• Describe the purpose: "This next section brings the training alive by allowing a lot of interactivity from the participants"
  
  
• We give it context: "We do this through the interactive tools found in the software. The tool you use should be of massive consideration for the result you want."
  
  
• Then practise it: There would then be a demonstration for how this works with our example
  
  
• The users then apply it: "Consider how you will use this in your training, Jeff, you could use this voting feature to make your point stronger about...'

We have found that the lines are very close where the effectiveness and enjoyment of remote training are concerned. 

A lousy session can drain learners and forever turn learners off to the idea of another training session. A good one leaves them feeling fulfilled and inspired (Depending on the topic!) 

The Cost of Ineffective Training

If you have remote training sessions in mind, have you considered what it would cost you not to do it properly? Probably a lot more than one wasted session. Ineffective training leads to negative performance, given that the reason training in the first place - we don't want to mix ineffectiveness into our already challenging environment!

So use our tried and tested failsafe method to perfectly deliver remote training and make sure that the training that you deliver works!