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These tips have been prepared to provide help and guidance to those new to training and presentation. They will help you to provide effective and consistent delivery. It is assumed that you will be using PowerPoint along with video and a flipchart or interactive whiteboard of some kind.

It is important that you are familiar with the training materials to be used.

These tips are for general guidance only and training needs and training facilities vary considerably. For example, the training room may be little more than an old shed in the middle of a public park, with virtually no training aids or it may be in a new building with a dedicated training room and the latest facilities.  

At every stage, the trainer is encouraged to add and highlight preferences and draw on previous experiences to enhance the presentation of the training.

The overall aim is to instigate change.  

Remember training is about “what we want people to do differently” after the event - not what they thought most interesting or just informative.

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Presentation tips for new trainers

Make sure you have a check list of the equipment required, for example:

• 
  
• a projector for PowerPoint / video presentation
• A screen
• a table or desk (maybe shared with the projector)
• a flip chart easel and pens (to note comments, highlight key points, provide additional information, answer questions, etc.) or Interactive whiteboard, smartboard, surfboard, ironing board or whatever you are lucky enough to have.
• Video playback system

All the equipment should be positioned at the front of the room and not moved during the presentation. All equipment leads should be taped down or fitted in cable lays for safety - yours in particular. It’s embarrassing, dangerous and expensive to trip over wires during the full flow of your presentation, sending projectors crashing to the floor, scattering burning glass projector lamps and setting fire to the hair and wigs of people sitting on the front row. Spectacular but better avoided.

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Presentation tips for new trainers continued

Of course you will have a burning question about budget and perhaps we need to answer that one before we can move on. What’s this going to cost? You ask. We could answer that with a cryptic: ‘how long is a piece of string?’  And there is a certain truth buried in that statement, because any video production has many, many variables. Just to give you some idea, here are a few to think about, that can influence the cost of a project.

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Beware the knock down price

Kipling can help us to make a good start

I keep six honest serving-men

 (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

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The clearer the brief - the better the job

One of the worst things that can happen is for those further up the chain of power to hijack your video project. It’s not unknown for the boss to want to use a video to polish his image. This may put an unreal time restraint on the production schedule, for example, if the boss wants the video ready for a high level conference so he can impress his peers. In other circumstances pulling a training video off the shelf can help impress the auditor and help to maintain that ISO ***** standard (those asterisks are for you to add your own string of impressive numbers by the way). In other words the original intention for the video can become corrupted on its journey to the screen. If this is the case we need to know when you know, so we can help overcome the problems.

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Pitfalls and hidden agenda’s - the cynic’s perspective

So, you’re probably looking to produce a video to help in your training – what do you need to think about? And just as importantly what do we need to know?

Well let’s start with some obvious questions – yes, they may be obvious but they’re not always asked or the answers considered.

1. What are your training objectives?

2. Who is the audience?

3. How will the programme be shown and distributed?

Training Objectives

In most cases, training is an intervention intended to bring about behaviour change of some kind. This could be a change in attitudes or culture through understanding the consequences of actions taken or not taken. This is particularly important for health, safety, environmental and quality concerns.

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Your training objectives

Your video may be intended to:

Communicate information

Change Attitudes

Develop Skills

Develop interest

Or raise issues - using trigger videos for example – these are ‘open ended’ and therefore they need to be supported in some way.

But whatever the intention of the video it is clearly far more important than just something to ‘put on during coffee’ or to ‘liven up’ a training session.

Are there any basic rules we need to consider to help ensure this will be an effective video?

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Training and communications - some rules and myths

Every month there is a catalogue of prosecutions for water pollution incidents across the country, caused by spillages, overfilling of tanks or drainage and containment failures. Often these incidents are a virtual carbon copy of previous accidents.

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Water pollution incidents - the unofficial laws

A Way With Waste

Some of you may remember this video in its early form. The first version (on VHS cassette) was produced not long after the enactment of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which introduced the concept of the duty of care for waste management and disposal. For many this was a very confusing set of requirements - for the first time producers could be held responsible for what happened to their waste after it had left the factory gates.

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