Corporate Training Certification
A. What is Corporate Training?
As global economies are constantly changing, worldwide businesses understand that innovative research, development, and business practices enable them to even the playing field by adding value for customers. Beyond just offering products and services at the lowest prices, global companies realize that extending quality workmanship and service after the sale leads to repeat business and continued growth. The best way to achieve these goals is to invest heavily in quality corporate training programs.
For individual businesspeople, quality corporate training offers the opportunity to expand on the skills and talents first developed during their college years. For companies, corporate training programs can help incoming team members adapt their college knowledge and life experiences to the specific needs and culture of a corporation. With new learning techniques that allow employees to enjoy significant professional development opportunities that do not interfere with the day-to-day operations of a business, more companies rely on the skills of experience corporate training specialists to bolster their bottom lines.
B. Facets of Corporate Training
Corporate training provides solutions for overcoming a wealth of workplace obstacles. Many programs offer training in a broad range of areas and skills but offer courses directed at succeeding in the corporate work atmosphere. These courses include but are not limited to:
* Time and Project Management
* Effective Communication
* Proper Business Writing
* Customer Service
* Team Building
* Public Speaking
* Conflict Resolution
* Business Development
* Marketing
* Food Safety Practices
* Knowledge Management
These various specializations add depth to the skill sets of participants. Corporate training programs are constantly evolving as they implement new training methods and curricula. Incorporating both hands-on experience and an understanding of program management strategies, students master all aspects of the training process, including human resource development, internal and external marketing, and maintaining professional standards.
C. Programs in Corporate Training
Many trainers are respected specialists in the field who have industry experience and are continually evaluated in their performance. This assures the student of high standards of the facility or training program he or she attends. With some exceptions, most Corporate training business is generated through word of mouth or referral programs.
D. What is a Corporate Training degree?
Courses in corporate training degree programs include:
* assessments,
* workplace training,
* business development,
* leadership management,
* public relations skills,
* company specific terminology,
* strategic operational and planning processes.
Corporate training programs especially benefit international business employees, whose experience in the corporate environment may be somewhat limited. The refinement of nuances from cultural awareness to customs and etiquette, politics, and useful conversational skills are a few of the many learning opportunities available in corporate training degree programs.
E. Certificate Programs
Certificate programs offer many professionals the ability to pick up valuable corporate training skills without committing to a lengthy, formal degree program. These programs especially appeal to managers or small business owners who have worked their way up through an industry using significant on the job experience in lieu of a traditional degree in their field.
Certificate programs can focus on specific corporate training topics like workplace conditions or larger skill sets like public speaking and assessments.
Requiring concentrated efforts more time corporate training programs allow creative, personable professionals the opportunity to advance in their career quickly, without waiting to complete a broader, four year program.
Certificate programs offer corporate training participants the chance to develop specific key skills that will help them educate business professionals and design quality-learning experiences of their own. In many cases, a prospective corporate trainer can quickly complete a certificate program, usually in less than six months.
Many companies design products in one company, manufacture them in another, and ship them to customers worldwide. In these scenarios, a company will want to employ trainers who can fill multiple roles and communicate with various sets of stakeholders who speak different languages. By combining aspect of cultural diversity trainers are able to relate to other people in their own cultures, an essentially help companies provide lasting quality in today's global economy.
Training programs also offer experienced professionals a way to increase their value to a company by picking up important corporate training skills. Many trainers pursue corporate training programs in order to qualify for higher level management positions, or to pursue career moves as solo entrepreneurs or small business owners.
Busy professionals who want to expand their role in their current organization or even make a much larger career jump can take advantage of corporate training. By participating in training sessions, emerging leaders who wish to advance their training skills can continue to develop into a more strategic trainer. Because of the flexibility of many corporate training degrees, students can join many corporate training programs regardless of their previous education or work experience. In many cases, a diverse work background actually helps a corporate training major apply their learning to a wider range of workplace scenarios.
What can you do with a Certification in Corporate Training?
A. Career specializations for careers in training
The general skill set acquired from participation in most programs provide adequate to superior qualifications in more than one industry, opening more valuable options and career paths. Those unsatisfied with one particular workplace will find that corporate training translates easy across different business platforms, as the core qualities learned from the degree program are valued for any corporate model, or small business that desires to become corporate.
B. In-house Corporate Trainer
In previous decades, companies often relied on experienced managers to directly train their staffs. Unfortunately, many of the skills required to lead a team do not always translate well to the training room. In addition, when a company expands its workforce to keep up with customer demand, managers do not always have time to constantly train new hires. For all these reasons, more and more companies turn to experienced in-house corporate trainers to meet their staff development needs.
In-house corporate trainers enjoy the advantage of watching their students grow and evolve over time. They can look at the results of their work play out in terms of sales results or improved customer service ratings. Evaluating those figures, they can expand and adapt their training programs to provide more effective learning experiences for new hires. They can also design remedial programs for employees who have not met company expectations.
Companies that deploy teams of internal trainers often enjoy stronger customer loyalty, especially when trainers work closely with front line staff members. Many companies offer their trainers bonuses, commissions, and stock options contingent on company-wide performance, in addition to the standard salary and other perks.
C. Deployment Training Specialists
Many companies that satisfy needs in the business-to-business sector rely on corporate training specialists to educate their customers on the proper use of their products. Especially in the software industry, where updates and revisions can potentially confuse and irritate customers, these roving groups of trainers drop into client worksites and make sure that their customers' teams can properly integrate their products to meet their goals.
In addition to traveling to client facilities, customer training specialists can also work from centralized locations. From the corporate hub, they design and improve customer training programs, which can be delivered on a central campus or through distance learning technology. As an extension of customer support, a good trainer can head off future drains on a company's resources by assuring that customers do not require further assistance after their training session has ended. Companies that invest in expanding front-end training can often recoup huge savings from their annual customer support budgets.
D. Specialized Subject Area Trainer
In addition to working across all of the platform areas of a company, a corporate trainer could be assigned to focus deeply on a specialized area of expertise. Subject matter experts in the areas of time management, sales, productivity, interpersonal communication, and other areas enjoy the opportunity to help team members grow these important skills.
Though many Fortune 500 companies employ subject matter experts in-house, a growing number of corporate trainers work as solo entrepreneurs or as part of consulting agencies. These trainers allow their clients to benefit from their deep, specialized knowledge while focusing their resources on the things they do best.
Subject matter experts can often choose the kind of lifestyle that fits them. Many trainers who love to travel can enjoy the opportunity to visit client locations around the world. On the other hand, a growing number of solo entrepreneurs work from home, offering conference calls, videoconferences, and other means of helping customers solve their training dilemmas remotely. Many subject matter experts write books and software to spread the word about their expertise in an area, which creates residual revenues from book royalties and public speaking engagements.
E. Executive Coach
Beyond the classroom and conference style learning that companies use to develop their staffs, many executives have started to invest in the services of personal business coaches who help design customized learning opportunities. Unlike consultants, who prescribe a set of remedies for common situation, a coach works directly with top decision makers who must adapt to new challenges with little preparation.
Coaches often work with company leaders in uncharted waters, and must use their intuition and street smarts to stay current with industry trends. By focusing on helping their clients make consistently strong decisions, coaches help companies improve their bottom lines.
Many coaches work as solo professionals and connect with clients via telephone, earning a monthly or even an hourly fee. Increasingly, consulting firms have added coaching to their menus of services. Other top companies have started to headhunt experienced coaches to leverage their expertise exclusively within one company. For creative corporate trainers with strong communications and interviewing skills, a career as a coach can result in huge dividends.
F. Did you know?
Quality corporate training plays a major role in compensating for poor educational preparation, especially for blue-collar workers. The National Association of Manufacturers 2001 members' survey asked employers about the most serious skill deficiencies of current hourly production employees. They reported the following results:
* 59.1% of employers noted poor basic employability skills (attendance, timeliness, work ethic, etc.);
* 32.4% poor reading/writing skills;
* 26.2% inadequate math skills;
* 25.0% an inability to communicate;
* 23.7% poor English language skills;
* 22.1% an inability to read and translate drawings/diagrams/flow charts;
* 22.0% an inability to work in a team environment; and
* 12.3% poor computer/technical skills.
The National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce found that productivity increases for each of the following factors:
In the manufacturing sector:
* a 10% increase in the average education of all workers is associated with a productivity increase of 8.6%;
* a 10% increase in hours results in a productivity increase of 5.6%; and
* a 10% increase in capital stock results in a productivity increase of 3.4%.
In the non-manufacturing sector:
* a 10% increase in the average education of all workers is associated with a productivity increase of 11%;
* a 10% increase in hours results in an increase of 6.3%; and
* a 10% increase in capital stock results in an increase of 3.9%.
In repeated studies, researchers discovered significant workplace benefits in almost every kind of company sponsored professional development program. This provides the business sector with firm proof that the value of corporate training benefits a corporation in the financial column, through the dual increase of productivity and company morale.
G. Certification and Licensure
Corporate trainers do not need any specific government issued license to perform their work. But specialist trainers and coaches often earn certifications in their specialties from independent, third party credentialing organizations. These voluntary certifications assure companies and clients that their trainers have received sufficient training and field experience to carry out their duties efficiently and effectively. In some specialties, corporate trainers can earn higher salaries and fees by completing higher levels of formal education.