Have you heard the tenet ‘hands-on equals minds-on?”, or a Mom who’s hands-on with her child? In this digital world where everyone can be transacted online, why go traditional, right? Let me tell you why.

What are the options?

Seminar:

A traditional seminar, though may sound passe’, is still the most popular form of training in the business world, maybe because it is the easiest to organize and most of the attendees are comfortable in this set up where they can ask questions face to face and get answered more clearly, without limitations or time and network barriers. Imagine the facilitator or the trainer handing out wads of paperwork to the attendees and the room is full-packed, visual aids playing on the background.

Some have resorted to living seminars through the use of technologies like podcasts to conduct web seminars, most commonly known as webinars. Others have pre-recorded training courses for online attendees which can be self-paced.

Kinesthetic:

When conducting training there are three methods that are required from the attendees. These three learning styles, visual, auditory and reading and writing, are to be integrated as they do the training.  But the fourth learning style known as the kinesthetic can be seen is from people who were trained through physical activities using their own two hands. 

These people are the doers. Instead of just idly sitting and listening to the speaker, they would stand up and work on it. They are the ones always ready to engage in role-playing exercise…

The ones who are eager to do hands-on training are the kind of people who want to master new skills. And earn from those skills.

Workshop: 

During the workshop, several activities will be carried out. Workshops are interactive training, the participants are getting things done rather than passively listening to an instructor or a lecturer.  

Workshops can be spiced up to get and retain the attention of your audience. Involve them, make them laugh and participate at the same time. You can achieve it by having fun with them, play games, tell a story and use props.

This should be fun and knowledgeable, both at the same time for it to be effective. Stephen Covey said 

The Benefits of hands-on training.

There are other benefits for the hands-on training.  It can eliminate negative thoughts and emotions about one’s self. Through hands-on training, adults who are doubting themselves can learn a skill ending the doubt. With hands-on training, there’s no other option to deal with it minds on. 

Other benefits of face to face learning.

• High engagement between participants will help increase attention and focus.  Trainees who are more engaged are more productive and are able to retain more information. 
• Face to face training is a great venue to interact with people who share the same interests as you. 
• When you’re in a group, it is safe to make mistakes because others around you are making their own mistakes as well. It assures them that it’s okay to make mistakes because everyone else does plus there’s someone whom you can just tap on the shoulder to ask how to correct what you’ve just done.

 

Conclusion

Practice and theory are linked together. This article isn’t saying that watching a webinar isn’t going to be productive but what it is saying is that a new-learn talent/skill has to be put to work, right away, if possible. It is an active way of dealing with the business when hands-on training is conducted in the company for the employees. 

In the book  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr.Stephen Covey, a globally respected leadership authority states, ‘Recognizing our own perceptual limitations and appreciating the rich resources available through interaction with other human beings takes humility and reverence’, 

His works preceded him and it was enlightening to know that human interaction is still the best remedy. Human interaction equals hands-on training.