Happy does training and facilitation differently to many other providers. To succeed as a facilitator or trainer, you will need to learn how to run your sessions in our interactive style.
At the core of our approach is this age-old principle:
Find out more below about what we expect from our trainers and facilitators, and watch some videos showing what this looks like in practice.
Taking this further, we sum this up as:
Involve – Discover – Challenge – Change
You will be flexible and responsive to each group (able to change the course/programme structure and content in the moment if needed), and perceptive about individuals and what they need to get the most from the learning.
For our leadership and personal development programmes: You will lead people to self-discover new ways of working and being, without telling them. You should be demonstrating the same methods, like using coaching questions that we teach on our programmes.
There will be times when you do nothing but lay the framework and set the task, able to step back and let the process work. You will provide the challenge that enables them to shift and create real behavioural change.
“As an associate trainer, I know that I can count on support from Happy staff and I have always been made to feel part of the team.”
We expect the following principles and attributes in our facilitators and trainers (both permanent and freelance):
This is crucial. Our facilitators/trainers will never blame or criticise participants/delegates, in the training room or outside it.
People learn best when they feel good about themselves. Even when challenging, the aim is to leave people feeling uplifted.
e.g. Instead of explaining good or poor management, for instance, participants should draw on their experiences of these to identify the strengths and skills of great managers/leaders. Or, instead of explaining absolute cell references in Excel, you would lead the delegates to copy a formula incorrectly and learn that this extra step is needed for the formula to be correct.
It should be a positive experience that participants and delegates enjoy and recommend to colleagues. At the same time as being supportively challenging.
A great facilitator/trainer sees what is going on for each individual and provides that crucial challenge to interrupt a way of thinking or being or to experiment and learn.
We are all learning and able to improve. We each need to welcome feedback and see it as a helpful learning opportunity.
What does each participant/delegate need to be more effective and achieve their objectives? That is more important than the pre-set programme/course objectives or structure.
The aim is to achieve the organisational and participant/delegate objectives, not to get through the material. If those objectives need a different approach, your role is to respond and be prepared to change things.
“I enjoy working for Happy because the staff are friendly and helpful. I'm always made to feel welcome. It's a nicely decorated office, with excellent lunch and refreshments. They do a lot of work for charities, so feel the training I provide is rewarding and helps the community.”
One of Happy's core principles is to be inclusive of all. We expect our trainers and facilitators to demonstrate this in the following ways.
But what does this look like in practice? In these two videos below, you can watch a short IT training session delivered by Maureen Egbe and a personal development session delivered by Nicky Stone.
Senior Facilitator Maureen Egbe delivers an IT training session on Formulas and Functions in Excel.
Senior Facilitator Nicky Stone delivers a session on Communication Styles, part of our leadership and personal development sessions.
Almost 90% of our IT freelancers have been working with us for over three years, and around half have been with us for more than 10 years. When asked what they like about working with Happy in a recent survey, these were some of their answers:
"People and values. Getting results through learner-based training in a relaxed yet focused approach."
"The people! As an associate trainer, I know that I can count on support from Happy staff and I have always been made to feel part of the team."
"I enjoy working for Happy because the staff are friendly and helpful. I'm always made to feel welcome. It's a nicely decorated office, with excellent lunch and refreshments. They do a lot of work for charities, so feel the training I provide is rewarding and helps the community."
"You are an enthusiastic team and keep us freelancers in the loop with communications."
Does this sound like a company you’d be proud to work for?
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