No practice means no practical transfer! In our modern working world, information becomes outdated faster than ever before. For this reason, employees are under constant pressure to update their knowledge. The good news: Information can be refreshed relatively quickly.

Employees can link new information with their existing knowledge. Behavior does not change so quickly. Learning and mastering new actions and behaviors involves not only a learning process. The new behavior must be practiced and transferred into practice. The practical transfer of a training measure depends significantly on practice. Because changes in the workplace only occur when thinking is done in a new way, and as a consequence, action is also taken differently. The newly learned information must be applied and tested. In this way, new skills are developed.

To illustrate this connection with an example: A sales representative may know all the sales arguments and product features by heart. He learned the content in a training session. However, this pure knowledge has only a small influence on his ability to convince new customers of the product. To master this ability, he must correctly understand the customer's needs, select the appropriate arguments, and communicate the offer. In training, the employee has learned a lot about formulating offers. If he does not practice this content and methods in a real sales conversation, no practical transfer takes place.

Information and knowledge are the foundation for skills and qualifications. Skills can only be sharpened through practice. Therefore, the implementation of practice should be integrated into every training session to ensure practical transfer after the training. Have you considered in which situations your training participants will put your training content into practice? Competence development goes a step further. One can speak of competences when the skills can be generalized to new, complex, and dynamic situations.

The difference between conveying information and learning skills

How do you find out if you are conveying information or a skill to a participant? Quite simply: Ask the question, “Can the person become successful or competent without practice?”. If the answer is “Yes,” then you are conveying information. If the answer is “No,” then it is about a skill.

How can you support your participants in practicing new skills?

If you are conveying skills in your training, then your participants need two things from you: Practice and Feedback.

Create practice opportunities

Ensure that your training participants discover and utilize practice opportunities. The better you know the daily work of your participants, the more accurately you can align your tasks with it. As an external trainer, sometimes your hands are tied here. It helps to talk with your participants about possible practice scenarios in the workplace. if you do not have your participants at the workplace.

The right challenge counts for practical transfer

Exercises should be matched to the current level of skill. The better the fit between skill level and challenge, the more effective the exercise. Simple exercises are abandoned, while overwhelming tasks discourage the practitioner. To master a skill, intentional practice (in English "deliberate practice") is necessary. The Harvard Business Review beautifully presents in this article why practice is so important for becoming good at something. If participants are curious, you can give them the link (https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert).

No bulimic learning please...

It is important to spread exercises over a longer period. Here, an online accompaniment to your training can help. Many training participants simply forget about practicing during their daily business. Automated reminders from the online accompaniment can help ensure that practice implementation does not disappear from their radar. If you send these practice reminders, for example via video to your participants, then they are even more motivated to implement the exercises.

Offer feedback and foster reflection

Training transfer usually starts after the training ends. For successful practical transfer, your participants rely on feedback. Feedback is important to ensure that the correct behavior is learned. If the practitioner is accompanied by an experienced manager, the manager can provide very behaviorally relevant feedback, and the practitioner can refine and correct their practice application.

If you are not on-site as a trainer, you can support your participants online. You can answer questions or support the action process with the help of reflection questions. Typical reflection questions are: “Can you think of a situation in which you acted differently than before the training?” or “Did you successfully apply a method from the training this week? In what situation was that? How did you notice that it was successful?”.

How are you currently supporting the practical transfer? Have you ever thought about online accompaniment? We would be happy to show you how online accompaniment can support the practical transfer of your training in the long term.