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What is a Training Consultant?

R.James
R.James

A training consultant, similar to most other types of consultant, is an experienced professional versed in a specific area that offers services to a company. Unlike other consultants, however, a training consultant is specialized in the processes used to train in a professional manner. The advice and services offered by this consultant helps businesses and other groups to train more effectively. Most consultants do not work for the business where they are offering assistance, but rather work for their own consultancy firm or a larger company. He or she might also be classified as an independent contractor, offering services on a contract based agreement.

A training consultant is likely to have more than one client at a time, and may split hours between different clients. In this way, businesses can access the knowledge that only a professional can properly provide without having to hire an expert to work in-house. Many organizations consider training consultants as a beneficial addition to an effective in-house training team, even if the company has some expertise within the company.

Training consultants often travel to companies and train employees to pass information along within a company.
Training consultants often travel to companies and train employees to pass information along within a company.

Training consultants work to analyze the training processes used by a company, finding problems in the system, and then developing ways to resolve them. After analyzing the training system that is in place, training consultants will offer advice on how to revamp training in light of their area of expertise. They will observe and evaluate the training system, then providing advice on the organization and structure of the system based on their findings. Common techniques can include implementing new methods, restructuring, or incorporating improved technology. The ending goal of their efforts is to maximize efficiency in the training department.

Many organizations consider training consultants as a beneficial addition to an effective in-house training team.
Many organizations consider training consultants as a beneficial addition to an effective in-house training team.

Training consultants can sometimes have no specialty. More often, however, they are a resource in one or a few specific areas, which combines training knowledge to create expertise that cannot be provided elsewhere. When a training team needs access to an expert during one stage of a project, they may enlist a training consultant for valuable assistance in that specific area.

Training consultants might be used by a company to help employees learn a new system.
Training consultants might be used by a company to help employees learn a new system.

By offering an outside view of the company, a training consultant can also bring out problems that could otherwise go undetected. Additionally, a training consultant can bring in expertise that, while not in-house, is appropriately experienced yet timely and cost-efficient. While part of their job may involve training the trainers, the responsibilities of a training consultant is not simply to train, but to provide assistance and professional advice to those who do.

Discussion Comments

suntan12

I think that computer based training is really where the training will lead in the future. Many training consultants with the help of some programmers can develop self paced training that an employee can do on their own which really cuts training cost and travel expenses.

This way a company can offer training to employees anywhere in the world and not have to fly them in for training. Also, the training will be uniform and the company can use these training modules as long as they need to.

The trainer will also know when an employee completed the training by a notifying message of the employee's test score. This also allows them to keep track of people that have not finished the training as well as those that might have additional questions due to poor scores.

Training and consulting jobs like this should really grow in the future because companies will want to find out ways to minimize training costs.

manykitties2

When I started working at a coffee shop we had a training consultant come in to help our manager implement the training program they had designed for new employees. For working in a coffee shop the training was surprisingly intense, and required a lot of homework.

What I noticed most about the training consultant that helped our manager was that she always made sure to get the trainees feedback and was always bring extra visual aids for our manager to use.

Our manager never seemed put out by the training consultants help, so I guess the company had them work together before.

Charred

@David09 - That’s a smart approach, and reminds me of the 80/20 rule – in your case, nearly 80% of your calls will be about 20% of the product’s features.

Personally I think that every company can benefit from having an IT training consultant or a business training consultant come in from time to time to show a company how better to train its employees and customers.

It simply costs too much time and money to carry out training the wrong way.

I’ve also found that employees who know how to perform a certain function or process don’t always document it, so that when they leave, that process leaves with them.

We need to teach others how to teach their potential successors (I realize there is a pride of ownership thing going on too) so that we can maximize the investment we make in our employees.

David09

We hired a training coordinator for our company. I don’t know if you would call her a consultant, because she works for us. She’s not a contractor.

Anyway, she’s evaluating all of our training materials and resources to help improve the quality of our training. More importantly, she wants to put as much of the training online as possible.

The idea is that with more of our customers accessing online resources for training, the number of training requests can diminish, in addition to the number of support calls.

We’ve identified that 75% of our technical support calls revolve around one particular use of the software product that we sell, so we’re having her focus her training efforts on that, for maximum impact.

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    • Training consultants often travel to companies and train employees to pass information along within a company.
      By: auremar
      Training consultants often travel to companies and train employees to pass information along within a company.
    • Many organizations consider training consultants as a beneficial addition to an effective in-house training team.
      By: Syda Productions
      Many organizations consider training consultants as a beneficial addition to an effective in-house training team.
    • Training consultants might be used by a company to help employees learn a new system.
      By: nyul
      Training consultants might be used by a company to help employees learn a new system.
    • Some training consultants offer individual mentorship of young professionals.
      By: Tyler Olson
      Some training consultants offer individual mentorship of young professionals.