Presentation Skills Are Key

A speech, a talk, a presentation, alone, is not training.

Yet presentation skills precede most other facilitator skills. A lecturer, tutor, coach, mentor, instructor or facilitator with poor presentation skills will likely be less effective and engaging than someone who has practiced and mastered this important skill-set.

And for people new to training, this can be a challenging set of skills to develop.

It has also become even more important because engaging people via remote learning platforms is even more challenging!

If you’re new to speaking in front of a group of people (whether by video conference or live in person) it is important to immerse yourself deeply in practice. You will need it. Not because you’re bad at it. You need the practice because you owe it to yourself professionally, and you owe it to the people who will invest their time and resources to learn from YOU.

Wherever you’re doing your TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment course, use this unique opportunity to grow and get the edge amongst all the dull, monotone teachers out there.

You do not need to be a black-belt ninja in the art of public speaking to complete a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, or the TAESS00014 Enterprise Trainer-Presenting Skill Set.

But I am already a great presenter

Great! For those who are experienced, and who are already recognised by their peers and students as good presenters, use the course as an opportunity to sharpen and hone your skills further. Or at the very least, as validation that you’re already doing a great job.

Practice = progress, not perfection.

Note the word practice. This is not about perfection, rather, awareness of the things that enhance and diminish our performance.

Any good Certificate IV in Training and Assessment will highlight certain qualities to practice and pitfalls to avoid.

A warning

Most Cert IV TAE and Trainer-Presenting Skill Set courses, especially online, require you to video yourself training. If you’re new to this and you watch yourself on video, you may realise that you “do many of the don’ts” and “forget some of the do’s.” That’s okay. Do not be discouraged. No one can maintain perfect adherence to these principles at all times. As long as we are willing to practice and make progress.

We’ve seen many trainers with 20+ years experience (ourselves included) fall into these traps. When this happens, we try not to get frustrated with ourselves. We reflect, acknowledge, learn, take it in our stride and carry on with greater skill and awareness.

Excellence is a worthwhile pursuit.

Once you become a trainer with a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, there’s no final destination. It’s just ongoing practice.

While this nationally recognised TAE40116 sets a fairly basic standard for performance when it comes to training (you’ll only be assessed to that level), we encourage you to continue pursuing excellence beyond this course.

As a trainer, you really have an opportunity to make a difference. You will find the experience so much more rewarding at a higher level of performance.