No transfer of practice occurs without practice! In our modern working world, information becomes outdated faster than ever before. For this reason, employees are under constant pressure to update. 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 not only requires a learning process. The new behavior must be practiced and transferred into practice. The practical transfer of a training measure is largely dependent on practice. Because changes at the workplace only occur when thinking and consequently acting is done in a new way. 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 can know all sales arguments and product features by heart. He learned the content in a training. But pure knowledge has only a small influence on his ability to convince new customers of the product. To master this skill, he must properly understand the customer's needs, select the right arguments, and communicate the offer. In training, the employee learned a lot about formulating offers. If he does not practice this content and these 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 honed through practice. Therefore, the implementation of practice should be incorporated into every training to ensure the practical transfer after the training. Have you thought about in which situations your training participants will test your training content? Competence development goes a step further. One can speak of competencies when 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? 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 convey skills in your training, your participants need two things from you: Practice and Feedback.

Creating 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 tailor your tasks to it. As an external trainer, sometimes your hands are tied. It helps to talk with your participants about possible practice scenarios in the workplace when you don’t have access to them on site.

The right challenge counts for practical transfer

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

Please, no bulimia learning…

It is important to distribute exercises over a longer period. An online support for your training can help with this. Many training participants simply forget to practice during their daily business. Automated reminders from the online support can help ensure that the practice implementation does not drop off the radar. If you send these practice prompts to your participants via video, they are even more motivated to implement the exercises.

Offer feedback and encourage reflection

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

If you, as a trainer, are not on site, you can support your participants online. You can answer questions or assist the action process with reflection questions. Typical reflection questions include: “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 support? We would be happy to show you how online support can sustainably support the practical transfer of your training.