Training of trainers has two distinct objectives:
• imparting knowledge of voting operations procedures;
• developing training presentation skills.
When using external professional trainers there is a need to ensure that they are thoroughly familiar with the technical and administrative content and formats of the training sessions for which they will be responsible.
When using non-professional trainers for voting operations staff training - as in cascade-style structures (see Training Methodology), or in any system where more senior voting station officials have training responsibilities for their staff - there is a need to ensure that those staff who will be doing the training also roles also receive skills training on how to train others. This will assist in making the training more effective than.
A training skills development programme is also necessary in environments where school teachers or other educators are appointed as senior voting station officials, and used in voting station official training roles as the skills required for adult training are different to those used for school teaching.
Procedural Training
The technical content of training sessions for trainers is taken from the same information as that appropriate for voting operations staff. When using external professional trainers it is important that they have sufficient knowledge of voting operations technical issues to answer participants' questions.
The alternative is using technical advisers from the electoral management body at all training sessions. This is usually difficult to integrate with other demands on technical specialists' time during the same period.
Training in Training Skills
Training is an acquired skill. The ability to do a task is not any indication of the ability to transfer these skills to others. There is a need to ensure that non-professional trainers receive some training on effective training presentation skills and use of training materials when using them to train voting operations staff, for example, local voting operations managers being used to train voting station managers, who in turn train their voting station officials.
The intensity of this training depends on the complexity of sessions that these staff will be expected to present.
In addition to covering procedural aspects of voting, a comprehensive trainer training program covers the following issues:
• an understanding the human learning and skills acquisition processes;
• creating a positive learning environment;
• encouraging learner participation;
• the development of a skills/competency training approach as distinct from an education approach;
• directing trainees towards competency objectives;
• setting up an effective training environment such as venue,
• breaks, recognising attention spans, consultation with trainees;
• equitable treatment of each individual trainee;
• time management to achieve training session timetable objectives;
• effective frameworking, revision and summarising of information provided;
• imparting values, quality expectations and procedural information;
• directing question and answer sessions and group exercises towards group learning and practical skill demonstration;
• equitable and practical methods of assessing each trainee's competency in performing the required tasks;
• self-evaluation of the trainer's performance.
Assessment of Trainers
An assessment of trainers is an integral part of any training programme and the acquisition of these skills by trainers needs to be tested.
This can be achieved through the implementation of mock training exercises during the training session Ideally this is followed up by close supervision of the initial training session undertaken by each trainer but this may not always be feasible as it requires time and resources.
Many trainers, in a cascade system particularly, may only present one session.
There is a need to implement some form of quality control, even if only by attendance of monitors from the electoral management body or training program managers, at a sample of the sessions conducted by newly-trained presenters.
