‘Unless recipients of training take on board the information and guidance they receive, and actually act on it over the long term, it’s wasted so what does it take to really hit the mark?

In the case of driver training you have to motivate and inspire to effect change. Any course content obviously has to be informative but it also needs to be surprising, convincing, engaging, challenging and different. The same goes for any online training.

In the case of practical training, whether it’s in-vehicle or in-workshop, the quality of delivery is key too. Whoever is interacting directly with the delegates needs to recognise that the majority of the audience are grown ups with clean licences and probably an unblemished record, so the patronising, holier-than-thou stuff is a definite no no.

Personality is crucial. The audience, whether it be one or one hundred, need to believe in this expert, to the point where they adopt the techniques, ideas and tips as their own. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of asking many drivers for their reaction after a training session and invariably it’s “I never knew that...” or “What a clever idea......I’ll use that in future”, which just goes to show that if you go the extra mile to make it really absorbing and convinvcing you’ll bring people along with you.

Once this environment allows them to ‘get it’ , fleet drivers will almost always put into practice the majority of what they’ve learned.’

Author: Steve Johnson, Principal, autoproactive,
 

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