Choosing Staff Development Courses for Your Company, What to Pay Attention to?

So, the article will consider the training and development process and the stages of choosing its various aspects. Before you choose for yourself a solution for professional staff development, you have to answer few important questions. Here they are:

• What is the purpose of staff development courses and whom to teach?
• What is the subject of staff development courses?
• What are the forms of training, and which one is best suited?
• Online or offline?

So, let's go over each of them individually.

What is the purpose of professional training in your case and whom to teach?

Your company has its own goals – long-term, short-term, strategic and tactical. Staff training and development process should be aimed at achieving them. A clear understanding of what exactly is needed and what is missing will allow you to move on. For example, in order to enter the UAE market, a foreign company will need to adjust its marketing strategy, have an understanding of local legislation, taxes, local culture features, and sales managers must have a basic knowledge of Arabic.

What is the subject of staff development courses?

The answer to this question directly depends on the previous paragraph (goals and objectives). For example, above mentioned, this is:

• Knowledge of local legislation;
• Knowledge of the peculiarities of local culture and mentality;
• Marketing strategy that takes into account previous points;
• Knowledge of local language.

Accordingly, sales managers, marketers, customer support, and management will need the knowledge of the above items.

What are the forms of training, and which one is best suited?

Now let's move on to the types of training and development classes. These are the standard forms of training.

• Seminar. A fairly common form of education in the modern world. It encourages the mutual exchange of experiences between participants; it is assumed that they all have at least basic knowledge, necessary to understand the specific purpose of the seminar.
• Lecture. Also the traditional form of training, which is good for the presentation of theoretical material.
• Business training. Several practical aspects, new technologies and methods of their application in practice are considered at this training. In many respects, it is similar to the seminar, as a form of learning with the active involvement of students.
• Coaching. The authority of the coach and his/her experience, to be shared is at the heart of this type.
• Game forms. In this form, they simulate real situations that can take place in life and the task of such training is to develop the correct actions in specific circumstances.

As a rule, the training and development process combines elements of some of the above forms.

Online or offline?

In fact, solutions for all described forms and subjects of training can be found both in online and in offline form. The table shows the strengths and weaknesses of online and traditional forms of learning.

Table 1 – Advantages and disadvantages of online and traditional training

Choosing a specific solution in Dubai, UAE

So, here we have considered the basic options when choosing the type and form of professional staff development. And now, with the same example, we will show you a specific solution that can be found in the UAE.

Organization providing services: The Atton Institute is a certified educational institution that offers integrated solutions for professional training.

Form of training: short courses: from 3 to 9 days, in which all important practical questions are considered in the shortest possible time.

Subjects of the courses (entering the local market): Marketing strategy and planning Professional sales manager Entering GCC markets key facts and winning strategies.