What Does It Take To Become A Great Trainer?

Have you ever sat through a workplace training where time seemed to stand still?

It’s often the same experience: the content is boring, it’s too long, or it’s irrelevant and leaves you wondering why you’re there (and if anyone will notice if you sneak out). 

Now think about the good training sessions you’ve attended—the ones where you felt engaged and learned something. Those sessions don’t happen by accident.

If you work in a library or nonprofit organization, there’s a good chance you’re an accidental trainer. You may be an assistant director, a program lead, or a supervisor, and training landed on your plate because someone had to do it. Staff turnover happens, volunteers change, and compliance requirements are ever present. 

Fortunately, great trainers are made, not born. And it’s worth taking the time to do it well because training impacts your entire organization. According to Grand Canyon University (GCU), “Employee training and development is critical in all types of businesses, regardless of industry or sector. When employees are better equipped to do their jobs well, the whole organization can benefit.”

Developing training skills is also a good career move. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts job growth for training and development specialists will increase by 11 percent from 2024 through 2034—much faster than average. 

So, what does it take to become a great trainer? Let’s take a look.

First, what does a trainer actually do?

Trainers go by many titles: corporate trainers, learning and development managers, coaches, facilitators, or “the person who knows the system”, but what do they actually do?

No matter the title, Academy to Innovate HR defines training as “teaching immediately applicable knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be used in a specific job. Training may focus on delivering better performance in the current role or overcoming future changes.”

Additionally, training is no longer confined to in-person events. It can also be online, hybrid, and synchronous or asynchronous—providing more options than ever before. 

Organizations invest in training, and employees expect training because it:

• Attracts and retains employees. Gen Z employees often view training opportunities as a determining factor in whether they should take a job.

• Bridges skills gaps. It helps people be proactive instead of reactive in situations where change is constant.

• Prepares future leaders. Training tied to succession planning helps organizations grow and thrive as employees leave or retire.

• Helps managers lead better. Like trainers, managers are made, not born. Training gives them the skills to support resilience, teamwork, communication, and more.

• Boosts the skills of volunteers and trustees. Many mission-driven organizations are led by boards. And many rely on skilled volunteers. Neglecting training for these roles can slow operations, create legal and financial risks, and increase staff workload.

Any type of training is more effective when led by a skilled trainer. The Knowledge Academy states: “At its core, the role of a Trainer involves creating and delivering engaging and interactive training sessions catering to the unique needs of their audience.” A skilled trainer should be able to:

• Create full learning experiences. Instead of just delivering information, skilled trainers create paths where people learn, practice, and ask questions.

• Turn knowledge into job-readiness. A comprehensive learning experience ensures learners can handle situations correctly, not just “understand the policy.”

• Confirm learning. Skilled trainers recognize that attendance isn’t the same as ability and use things like activities and knowledge checks to measure progress.

If you’re an accidental trainer, the best way to become a great trainer is to keep learning yourself. Let’s look at the skills you may need to develop. 

The 8 Skills of a Great Trainer

1. Subject-Matter Expertise

You need foundational knowledge about a topic before you can teach it. This knowledge helps you establish authority and gain your learners’ trust. It also helps you answer possible questions. 

That being said, don’t worry if you don’t know everything about a topic. Sometimes, knowing a subject too well can make it harder to teach, because you forget what it’s like to be a novice. As long as you’re able to do research or collaborate with others who have the necessary knowledge, you can create effective learning material. 

2. Instructional Design Skills

Instructional design sounds technical, but it’s really just about planning how to deliver effective, engaging training for your learners. 

For example, if you’re training volunteers, you wouldn’t want to hand them an entire policy manual and hope for the best. You’d think about what they need to know to succeed in their role, prioritize what would help them the most, and choose the best ways to provide required information and practice—and decide how to measure their learning.

It helps to think of instructional design as creating a training roadmap to reach a specific outcome. If you need guidance, check out our free training design workbook, which walks you through the key steps.

3. Knowledge of Adult Learning Basics

Adults don’t learn the same way as children, and the strategies used by school teachers don’t translate well to the workplace. Adults want to know why they are learning something and how it relates to their job. A good trainer answers those questions early.

Instead of starting with a subject’s background or history, it’s important to focus on relevance. Don’t make learners wait for the “why” until slide 27. 

Knowing how to create learning materials that appeal to adult learners is an essential skill for reducing frustration, increasing engagement, and ensuring learning takes place.

4. Critical Thinking Skills

Pulling together subject expertise, instructional design principles, and adult learning strategies into an effective training experience requires critical thinking. 

You need to determine what to include, what to leave out—or whether training is even the right solution for the problem! Getting it right is important because too much information can overwhelm learners, too little can leave them confused, and pointless training wastes everyone’s time.

It’s also important to apply critical thinking skills after a training session. What went well? What didn’t work? How can you use this information to improve future training sessions?

Tip: Niche Academy includes a tutorial series on Improving Critical Thinking Skills. You can start a free 30-Day trial and select the topic during the quick setup to begin learning in minutes.

5. Communication Skills

When I was teaching face-to-face in a classroom, I remember discussing with a colleague how teaching is often challenging because you always have to be “on”, which can be hard when you’re tired, overworked, or unprepared. You want your audience to be excited about the topic, and if you appear uninterested, your learners will likely feel the same. What you say and how you say it can make a difference between a session that’s clear and effective and one that leaves people unsure, or worse, that it was a waste of time.

Involving learners in the process is one of the best ways to ensure your training is engaging. The Knowledge Academy notes: “Encouraging active participation from learners allows them to contribute their perspectives and experiences. It transforms the learning process into a dynamic and enriching journey for everyone involved.”

Knowing how to give and receive feedback is also important, including how to encourage learners who are struggling in ways that reduce their frustration. A Training Industry article explains how “Active listening—fully engaging in conversations and asking questions to ensure understanding—is critical to this process.” 

Your tone, words, eye contact, and body language all matter. If you appear friendly and approachable, learners will feel more comfortable responding to and asking questions. In other words, they are more likely to participate and learn!

TIP: When someone asks a question, reflect it back rather than answering immediately. Saying something like, “So what you’re asking is…” can help build trust and prevent misunderstandings.

6. Tech Skills

Whether you’re teaching in person, over a video call, or through a learning management system (LMS)/training platform, some technical proficiency is required. You don’t need to be a tech wizard, but you should know enough to keep things running smoothly so learners don’t get frustrated while you figure out how to share your screen. It’s good to practice beforehand.

If you’re using an LMS or considering a move to one, the ideal solution should have the features you need without being too complicated. For example, a large healthcare system would likely need a more complex LMS compared to a small nonprofit organization. We built Niche Academy with libraries and nonprofits in mind. 😁

7. Project Management 

If you’re juggling multiple training projects, the ability to organize, prioritize, delegate, and deliver is key to success. As AIHR's Learning and Development Guide states, you “must be able to collaborate and communicate with multiple stakeholders, organize documentation and materials through various drafts, and problem-solve complex challenges to keep projects on track.” 

It also helps to think in terms of repeatability. What can you reuse, update, or standardize? Effective training isn’t about one-off sessions; it’s about creating a culture of lifelong learning that propels your organization forward.  

Tip: Keep a training change log. Each time you update your training or process, note the reason. Future you will be very grateful.

8. Assessment and Reporting Skills

Training doesn’t stop at creating and delivering engaging content. You should also assess effectiveness and may need to report outcomes to funders or other stakeholders. 

Good assessment requires more than simply tracking who attended and completed training. You need to build in “show me” moments, where learners can demonstrate new knowledge or skills—so you can see whether they met the training outcomes.

You’ll want to use a training platform (like Niche Academy 😁)  that makes it easy to assess learning and generate reports. AIHR’s Learning and Development Guide explains, “By measuring training ROI, you can tangibly demonstrate how the company benefits from offering training. This metric is not about how satisfied employees are with a particular training. Instead, it shows what impact training efforts have on the organization overall.”

The 5 Qualities of a Great Trainer

The qualities of a good trainer are a combination of personal traits and training skills that ensure training and education sessions are productive and memorable… Demonstrating the qualities of a good trainer can transform workshops and training courses into experiences. This helps learning retention, making it much more likely that new learnings will be applied in practice. - Deborah Moiso 

Let’s look at each of the qualities.

1. Emotionally Intelligent

People can only learn effectively when they feel safe and comfortable. Knowing how to help learners feel at ease is important. Training Magazine states,  “The best trainers [foster] environments of safety, curiosity, and consistency.”

The Knowledge Academy explains further, “By understanding the challenges and emotions that learners may experience, trainers can create a safe and supportive space for the learning journey. Demonstrating empathy fosters trust and encourages open communication, enabling learners to feel heard and valued.”

Additionally, topics such as conflict, safety, or trauma-related situations can cause discomfort, so it’s important to be aware of how learners are feeling and to offer a safe space for questions and support. 

2. Collaborative

Developing effective training is seldom a one-person job. Even if you’re an expert on a subject, it’s good to ask others for input because it’s easy to have a blind spot when something is your specialty. 

Or, if you’re creating training for others to deliver, you’ll need to work with them to ensure they are comfortable with, and understand, the experience you’ve planned.

You also need to work with learners in ways that encourage engagement.

Collaboration requires awareness of and respect for other viewpoints.

3. Organized and Prepared

Effective training requires planning and behind-the-scenes work, which may not be as fun and flashy as presenting, but are key to a good outcome. If you throw something together at the last minute, you’re bound to disappoint adult learners who expect good use of their time and executives who expect a strong ROI on training. 

Deborah Moiso with SessionLab states, “Great training doesn’t happen by accident. The best trainers take the time to design thoughtful sessions, anticipate challenges, and have a plan.”

A little planning goes a long way—and our free training design workbook can help you get started. 

4. Adaptable and Creative

No matter how much you plan, training experiences are never set in stone. They are dynamic and constantly changing. Tech may fail, a group may be quieter than expected—or more distracted, and sometimes a planned activity doesn't work. You need to be able to pivot quickly.

Additionally, you need to be able to grab, and keep, your learners’ attention. Deborah Moiso declares, “A great trainer finds ways to present their material in unexpected, interactive ways that make learning stick.”

5. Passionate About Learning

Having a genuine passion for learning makes it easier to stay up to date with trends, best practices, and industry changes, but there’s also a side benefit. Your enthusiasm will rub off on your learners! 

It’s easy to tell when someone is simply going through the motions—and even easier for learners to think, “If the trainer doesn’t care, why should I?”

Kelly Creighton with HR Daily Advisor stresses that “effective instructors and trainers display a sincere enthusiasm for learning. They are always learning new things themselves while inspiring others to do the same. They have the skills required to be continuous learners and motivate continuous learning.” 

How to Become a Great Trainer

We’ve looked at what a trainer does, the impact they can have, and the skills/qualities they need to be effective. We also mentioned that great trainers are made, not born. And here are some steps you can take: 

• Formal education: While there is no degree in “workplace training”, if you’re interested in pursuing a professional path, degrees in learning and development, education, or instructional design are all great options.

• Continuing education: Attending webinars, workshops, and certificate programs can help fill gaps if you lack a formal training background. They also offer opportunities to stay informed of new and best training practices.

• Mentorship: Finding a mentor can be a great way to develop some of the softer skills in training, such as active listening, emotional intelligence, and collaboration. Look for someone in your organization or in your field who you admire and respect, and see if they can work with you—formally or informally—to help you build skills, confidence, and networks.

• Practice: There’s no substitute for actually training! Develop a plan, deliver the training, assess and report on it, and ask for feedback. Then, take what you learn and use it to improve future training.

• Stay connected: You may be the only trainer in your organization, and it may feel like no one knows—or appreciates—exactly what you do. But we do! If you don’t have a mentor or the time and budget for formal education, we’ve got you covered. Sign up for our Niche Notes newsletter (look for the sign-up form in the footer at the very bottom of this page) for bite-sized tips you can put in place right away. It includes personal stories of what worked (and didn’t) for our own trainers. It’s a great way to learn, connect, and feel less alone on your path to becoming a better trainer. 

According to Indeed: “When employees and organizations expand their knowledge and skills through workplace training, they can perform more effectively in their jobs.” 

You can become a great trainer.