05/05/2020
THE PLACE OF A NATIONAL TRAINER IN THE BOYS BRIGADE NIGERIA PART TWO.
We have received a couple of questions and applauds after the first part of this detailed write up on who a National Trainer is.
Here's the second edition.
Enjoy.
Please if it ministers to you personally, share it to other Trainers in your Council.
We are one.
THE QUALITIES OF A TRAINER.
1. Appearance:
Appearance gives the first impression of an individual’s behaviour. First impression is created within the first few seconds of a meeting. It is very important to have a pleasing personality to make the public comfortable in order to interact and create great impression. Appearance is the first and foremost quality of an effective trainer.
2. Preparation and Practice: Practice is essential. It helps keeping the lectures and training easy and less complicated. Besides, it’s quite awkward if the trainer keeps looking into his notes, which affects the flow of speech. You must have experienced such training sessions and how boring they turned out. He must have complete command over his training material; alas it is expected of a trainer to know each and every word of the material in use.
3. Readiness, Encouragement and Engagement: To make a training more productive and result oriented, a good trainer engages his students to share their past experiences relative to the content being discussed. A good trainer allows cross-pollination of ideas to illustrate the material and talk to his students at their level.
4. Self Satisfaction: Training in the Boys’ Brigade is like a profession that demands great research skills. Trainers are expected to be on their toes and deliver 110% all the time. The more they research the more self confident they are, in order to satisfy the demands of their Boys.
5. Empathy: This is the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another. It is the faculty for recognising the fears and uncertainties in the minds of trainees (Boys and Officers) when learning additional techniques or skills. Empathy enables a trainer to point out personal difficulties encountered by him in similar learning situations, so as to put the learners at ease.
6. Honesty: This is the courage to recognise personal strengths and weaknesses and to be frank about these aspects to the Boy being trained, for their own benefit.
7. Patience: This is shown in the willingness to compliment slow progress and refrain from the anger when mistakes are made. It includes the techniques of repeating instructions, breaking down a task into small units and allowing time for Boys to try out.
8. Democracy: This refers to the kind of atmosphere created when training takes place. The trainer should be supportive and non-threatening in presentation. The tone of voice and facial expression should lead the Boys to feel comfortable in raising questions, offering suggestions, reinterpreting instructions and generally to feel relaxed while they learn.
9. Purpose: This emphasises the element of tenacity in achieving the training goals. A good trainer conscientiously moves a group of learners along to a pre-set destination.
There may be stops and shifts, but the eye is always fixed on certain performance standards and levels.
10. An ability to learn and listen: The trainer must hear questions raised by trainees and understand if the questions reflect other problem, which are not being mentioned. He should have the posture of a listener through training towards the speaker and maintaining eye contact. He should also re-enrol for National trainings as a refresher and learn more.
WHAT THE TRAINER NEEDS
1. They need Organizational Support: The trainers need support from the parent organization (Boys’ Brigade Nigeria) in order to perform effectively. It is the responsibility of the parent council to provide your trainers with best facility, equipment and opportunities to grow. In general, trainers’ burnout rate is high and it depends upon how supportive is their organization.
2. They need Democracy: Trainers as adults need space and have voices which need to be heard. They perform optimally when the right atmosphere is set for them. Like enzymes their activity is dependent of the temperature of the parent council and the pH of the surrounding environment. High or low temperatures/pH will render them ineffective.
3. They need to be understood: Trainers need to be understood. We have a culture of using someone’s past to judge another trainers experience. Many times trainers are seen as nuisance and plaques which must be avoided, clear understanding is essential for effectiveness.
4. They need Time: We all need time to learn, grow, make mistakes, adapt, undergo character evolution and become the kind of person. Don’t be quick to judge any book by its cover.
5. They need a Family: The trainers need a cell group or family where all trainers can joyfully fellowship, grow together, share ideas, experiences and make positive decisions that will foster the objective and aim of the Boys’ Brigade.
6. The need a Coach and a Mentor: Training is a continuous process. Whenever we stop growing/learning self ceases to exist. Every trainer needs a coach to spur him into professionalism in his field of expertise. Training actually starts when you become a trainer in the Boys’ Brigade, because you will need a mentor and a peer-mentor to model your goals, character, relationships, Christian experience etc. Coaching is short-lived but mentoring can last for the rest of your life.
7. They need to be engaged: Lamarckism is applicable to the life of a trainer in the Boys’ Brigade. When a trainer is effectively engaged, he becomes more proactive but when a trainer is disused, be fades, becomes resentful and looses interest in the affairs of the Boys’ Brigade.
CONCLUSION:
Given equal opportunities, everyone is a potential achiever. Every trainer must have proverbs 22:6 as his anchor scripture “Train up a Boy in the way he should go in the Boys’ Brigade and when he is old he will not depart from it”.
We must turn away self-pride, vain glory, covetousness, bitterness, character assassination and embrace justice for all, unity in team spirit (esprit de corps), obedience, trust and above all love which is the hallmark of our salvation as Christians.
Come let us reason together says the Boys’ Brigade, Can two walk together if they do not agree?; for when two lie together they create warmth and a bond of three can never be broken says the Lord (Ish 1:18, Amos 3:3 and Ecc 4:9-12).
Selah !
