Adapting Training to the Varied Levels of Participants

Adapting Training to the Varied Levels of the Participants

The Equality for All Manufacturing Company gives this class to a group of new employees weekly as it is a required piece of the training process for all newly hired employees. The modifications made to the training room have taken place in several areas and are necessary for a variety of reasons. A series of factors played in to the modifications that were implemented by the USA trainers. These factors are constantly changing to allow the training program to meet the needs of the changing population of new employees.

The training materials themselves were the first area to be considered. For the USA training group, the training materials are designed to meet the needs of very diverse groups. The printed materials are printed in a clear font that is legible to all ages. This is necessary to ensure that learning can take place and that the organization is complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (US Department of Justice, 2012). The wording cannot be overly complex so students with weaker reading comprehension skills are not left behind and, depending on the language skills of students recently immigrated to the United States, the use of a trainer with appropriate language skills is used (Frankfort International School, 2011).

The final consideration for the training materials is to offer materials that meet the needs of various learning styles of the group. Instead of presenting the materials in traditional word and paragraph format, trainers can reach more students through several small adjustments. First, they can create headers and bullets to highlight important topics. Next, they can include graphics, charts, and graphs to assist their visual learners. Areas of the training that involve note-taking can be adapted to utilize graphic organizers instead of more traditional note-taking formats. These alterations can assist a wider variety of students and increase comprehension, especially for visual learners.

References

Frankfurt International School. (2011). Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved from

http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm

US Department of Justice. (2012). ADA homepage. Retrieved from http://www.ada.gov/