Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

6.3 Preparation

The six-Ps mnemonic is the rule the rest of the section operationalises. Preparation is the work the instructor does before the trainee arrives; the six elements below are the checklist that work runs against.

The preparation should include the following:

  • Selecting or confirming the location to be used.
  • Evaluating the safety aspects of the training environment.
  • Assessing the serviceability of the equipment to be used and its suitability if degraded.
  • Gathering the training aids and resources that are required and most suitable.
  • Laying out the training environment to best accommodate the number of trainees and the type of training event taking place.
  • Ensuring your training media or board work is ready to start at a relevant point.

The five sub-sections below treat each item in the order an instructor encounters it in practice: location is fixed first (where), environmental safety is assessed there (is the location safe to use), training equipment is verified (does the equipment work), training aids are gathered (does the instructor have the materials), and the scene is set (is the room arranged for the brief that is about to happen).

Location

In the majority of cases the location will have already been designated as a function of the type of training to be undertaken. It stands to reason that if it is a simulator session, the pre briefing will take place in the designated simulator briefing room. Which simulator to use will have been detailed on the roster system; further useful information can also be obtained from the training document library or secondary roster portal. However the latter is often not live-updated and is only used as a planning guide. The roster system is to be considered as the master document at all times.

When the training session is a classroom-based event, the location will be displayed on the monitor at the entrance to the training facility and on the monitor in the training office. Training office staff can assist with any enquiries and will also process advance bookings for training facilities.

The location step has a quiet operational core: the master document for the location is the roster system, not the training document library or any secondary planning aid. An instructor who relies on the wrong source ends up at the wrong simulator with a crew that is at the right one, and the session is lost. The discipline is to confirm the location against the master at the start of each working period.

Environmental Safety Assessment

Duty of Care is not delegable to the employer. The employer's responsibility to provide safe facilities is a precondition; the instructor's responsibility to verify, on the day, that the facility is in fact safe, and to report any degradation, is independent and continuing. The continuing-process framing matters: a facility that was safe at 0700 may not be safe at 1300 (a spilled coffee on the floor between sessions, a chair that has developed a structural fault, a power cable now stretched across a walkway). The instructor checks at the start and remains alert through the session.

In the initial assessment, the instructor shall identify the correct escape routes from the training location, the positioning of evacuation notices (or lack of), and the physical location of firefighting equipment. While it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure the provision of such equipment and its serviceability, the instructor must know its location and be familiar with its use; he should also report any deficiencies to the training management office during office hours, or security staff when out of hours, followed up by an email. The location shall be assessed for any hazards or threats present, e.g. but not limited to, trip hazards, loose electrical fittings, sharp edges and surfaces. These should be removed or rectified and briefed to the trainees accordingly.

The deficiency-reporting chain (training management office in hours; security staff out of hours; email follow-up regardless) is the operational pattern. The email follow-up is what creates the audit trail; a verbal report at 2200 to a security desk is recoverable as data only if it is reduced to writing.

Assessment of Training Equipment

Standardised delivery depends on current media: digital lesson material and fixed electrical presentation equipment are used frequently. The instructor should, prior to every training event, be knowledgeable in its operation, ensure that such equipment is serviceable and functioning correctly and has been updated with the latest lesson plans. The use of personal removable storage media in company computers to maintain one's own lesson plan library is forbidden. Training rooms should have network access to the approved training document library so instructors can load the current lesson materials; typically each room also has a dedicated computer with the required software and a connection to a display screen.

If the equipment provided is unserviceable, seek the assistance of training management office staff to rectify the problem during normal office hours. If outside of office hours, determine if the training can be completed using trainee electronic manuals, flip charts and whiteboard. If the training after the brief is to be conducted in a simulator, the instructor must also check its serviceability and determine if any defects will affect the lesson plan. The Simulator Component Inoperative Guide (SCIG); its function and use will be taught in 12.1 Standards.

Gathering the Training Aids

Each briefing room and classroom is equipped with a whiteboard. The whiteboard should be clean from the previous user; however, if the surface requires further cleaning beyond the use of the supplied wiper, contact the facilities department via security staff. Whiteboard marker pens are "the tools of the trade" for an instructor. Each instructor should have a personal set of water based non-permanent whiteboard pens. Replacement pens are also available from the ground training office, as are spare flip chart pads.

In addition to owning a personal set of pens, many instructors will also accumulate their own set of aids to assist when conducting ground based training. These will be discussed further in the 4.1 Introduction.

The "tools of the trade" framing is operational: an instructor without functional whiteboard pens is an instructor unable to use the most-used aid in the brief, and the instructor's responsibility (rather than the facility's) is to carry a working set. The same logic applies to the broader personal-aids set many instructors accumulate over time: the instructor owns the gear that delivers the brief.

Setting the scene

The final elements of the preparation require organising the room layout of the seating and the positioning of any training aids to be used.

The way the seating is arranged can change the style and subconscious impression of the training session to the trainee. The classic arrangement of being separated from the trainees by a desk causes a subconscious formal environment, whereas a circular arrangement will seem less formal. The instructor needs to be mindful of what type of training will be taking place and choose the most appropriate arrangement for the trainees.

Before the start of the training session, the instructor must be ready to start any media from the correct position. The instructor can lose a great deal of credibility if he starts the training session with a search of which PowerPoint presentation or video to use. Equally, credibility can be gained by having prepared the whiteboard or flip charts with the initial information to be delivered. Techniques for the use of training aids will be further discussed in 4.3 Techniques for Using the More Common Training Aids.

The credibility point is concrete: the trainee's first three minutes in the briefing room form a working judgment of the instructor's competence and care, and the judgment colours their participation through the session and into the debrief. Pre-loading the whiteboard with the day's framework, having the lesson plan open at the right slide, and knowing where the model and pointer are, is what makes those three minutes positive.

Cross-references

  • 6.2 Briefing Aids. The role of briefing aids and the Sequence of Pre Flight Brief.
  • 6.4 Briefing Structure. The three-element relationship (skills, trainees, instructor) that the brief operates within.
  • 4.1 Introduction. The depth treatment of the aids referenced in Gathering the Training Aids.
  • 12.1 Standards. Teaches the Simulator Component Inoperative Guide (SCIG) referenced under Assessment of Training Equipment.
  • 5.1 Introduction. The Duty-of-Care framing here is the instructor-side counterpart to the crew-side risk-assessment discipline the RMM sets up.