Preparing to deliver new material

Every trainer gets nervous when they get told they will be delivering new material. It might be an update to existing material they have previously delivered, a totally new course or skill set or unit of competency, or the first course you deliver for an registered training organisation you have recenlty joined. But I have never seen a trainer who cares about their performance they deliver and the professionalism they exhibit not to be nervous in these situations.

So how do you prepare? The answer for me is, well it depends. It depends on a number of factors including whether you get to see the course being delivered by someone else first, how much time you have to prepare and how familar you are with the general field of what you are delivering.

Now I know some people will rightly say, well as a vocational trainer you should always be familar with the general field of what you are training, but there are those pesky electives from other training packages that you may not be as familar with as other units of competency.

Regarding being given the opportunity to watch another facilitator deliver the course this is something I would prefer to do, in fact for me it's ideal to watch the program being delivered twice, by two different facilitators. Twice so the first time you see it you observe as a student, seeing where students struggle and coming up with strategies to overcome these, and the second time with the mindset of the trainer, getting the flow of activities, visual aids, break times and how long the day(s) are.

It also gives you an good insight into what sort of student cohort to expect, their general LLN abilities and IT literacy so you can plan ahead for when you deliver.

But this rarely happens. I have lost count the number of times I have first seen a course, a changed course, a new skill set etc is when I deliver it for the first time. Sometimes when you are set to observe another deliver it you turn up only to find a classroom full of students and no other trainer to deliver it, sometimes you get to see it being delivered once, sometimes you see the first day of a program and are expected to deliver the rest of it, and somtimes it you get given time to prepare but no actual observing of how the course it going to be delivered.

Only once in all my years have I had the opportunity to observe three different facilitators deliver the course before I had to deliver it myself, but believe it or not I don't think this is the best situation to find yourself in, at least not for me anyhow. For me it was both a bit excessive and led to further nerves waiting to deliver it. Sometimes its better just to watch and prepare then get stuck in and step up to the plate and deliver. I would always rather deliver than to sit around forever.

If I am given time to prepare I have developed a routine where I print out all documents, activities, guidance material given to the students, learner and facilitator guides, assessments and marking guides, then go through the session plans with the visual aids provided to get the idea of the flow of the course.

Then, I start looking at each day of the course, what needs to be delivered, what assessment tasks are undertaken, how do I explain the assessments to students, how do I explain why we are doing an assessment, look at the model answers and think about how the assessments will guide some of my delivery. I use a whiteboard sometimes and write down for the day what is required, rehearse what I will tell students. I start to think of all the questions the students may ask and do the digging for answers before I get in class and start the delivery.

One of my training managers gave me some incredibly useful advice when delivering the first time. He said despite preparing for it you will always be nervous, so don't look at the course as a big picture, but break it down into what needs to be delivered, what assessment tasks are coming up in the next session, deliver that session then review what is coming up for the next session.

I set high standards for my delivery, sometimes ridiculously high standards and have to force myself to remember that a trial of a new course, new method of delivery or a pilot program are all about learning opportunities for the training organisation, the course developers, and the facilitators, and that not everything will probably be pitch perfect the first time.

And then it's show time. No time for self doubts or preparing now you are on.

How do you prepare to deliver a new course? Share your experience and routines so we all can learn.