The Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka (AHK Sri Lanka) coordinated the first “Train-the-Trainer Ada International – Basics” course which was held from 17th of June to 22nd of June 2019 in Colombo, Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The one-week long training conducted by the internationally experienced and ISO-certified coach Mr. Edwin Lemke revealed the basic concepts and methodology of quality training to 14 participants that work at multiple companies such as Dimo, Kramski, Nikini, Hellmann MAS, Leema Creations and CINEC. The goal of the training was to upgrade the 14 inhouse trainers’ and mentors’ knowledge and skills regarding their individual training and teaching skills by familiarizing them with new teaching concepts that are based on German standards.
For decades, Dual Vocational Training (DVT) has been the success factor for German companies, providing them with highly skilled and professional apprentices that are developed and educated inhouse. Important to consider in this context is that the apprentices’ personal and professional development is crucially dependent and based on well-educated and trained inhouse trainers.
Being aware of this importance, the given course prepared its participants to train their company internal apprentices more effectively in future and included topics such as teaching methods for breaking down complex tasks, learning styles, apprenticeship structure, and many more. The complete training consisted of four modules that ensured a holistic learning from the analysis and definition of training, to its profound preparation, conduction and the final completion and evaluation.
Mr. Viraj Hewathanthri, Manager for Special projects & Didactic at Nikini appreciated the unique teaching approach of the course. In addition to group activities such as discussions, new techniques like “Vernissage” and “professional visualization” were applied, designing the training in a varying way through which inspirations for future inhouse trainings could be already obtained by the learners.
The 40 hours basic course followed German training standards and was adjusted curriculum-wise to the Sri Lankan working environment. The participants received learning and study material during the workshop and had to pass a 90 minutes written examination as well as a 30 minutes oral examination in the end where they had to practically show in a presentation how they implement the newly learnt content.
Out of the fourteen participants, eleven inhouse trainers successfully passed the examination and received their certificate on 26th June during the official “Certificate Handover Ceremony” at the premises of the AHK Sri Lanka office in Colombo. Mr. Andreas Hergenröther, Chief Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka and Dr. Karsten Feuerriegel, Senior Adviser at GIZ, congratulated the participants on their successful passing and highlighted the importance of continuous training for the quality assurance in vocational training in Sri Lanka.
The successful completion of the training provides the graduate with the international certification for inhouse trainers accredited by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).
With this first successful AHK-GIZ Train-the-Trainer course, an important milestone regarding market-oriented vocational education and training to strengthen the Sri Lankan inhouse training was created.
A subsequent training to deepen the generated knowledge in the form of an AdA Full version is highly requested and already in its preparation phase. It is planned for the end of 2019.