Training Tips: How to Retrain the Recently Redundant

In Britain alone, on average 3.8 people out of every 1,000 employees are made redundant. This includes those who have taken voluntary redundancy because they found their job role was no longer significant. Therefore, throughout your training career, you’re very likely to find yourself retraining someone who has recently lost their job.

Redundancy is often likened to the grieving process or bereavement as it is an incredibly difficult time in someone’s life. Especially if someone has been in their job for a number of decades, losing that responsibility can leave a person feeling completely lost and displaced.

Retraining someone who has been made redundant requires a different training approach to the usual student. Here are our main training tips to consider when retraining the recently redundant.

1) Assess the needs of your students

Before you start your training plan, it is important to fully grasp what they want to achieve through the training course. Do they want to go back into their old line of work? Do they want to develop skills in a new field?

If you’re in a class full of people who have recently been made redundant but want to improve their skills in their past industry, you should structure your training plan around them. It would be a wasted effort to go over information your students already know.

2) Ensure you provide office hours

Those who have recently been made redundant will appreciate the opportunity to talk to you on a one-to-one basis. Office hours are the best way to provide this support and will also help you understand your students on a personal basis.

The more you learn about your students, the easier it becomes to train them. For example, if someone worked for many years as a tradesperson prior to their redundancy, they will most likely have expert knowledge of that industry and have many transferable skills that will help them with their training.

3) Include Interactive Training techniques

This popular method of training is used in most classrooms and with good reason. Interactive training is the best way to motivate your students to stay engaged. While you may be tempted to plan your lessons around fitting in masses of information, it is important your students are actually paying attention.

The interactive training technique involves breaking sessions up with quizzes, demonstrations, case studies, group discussions and Q & A sessions. These short breaks help keep students involved in the lesson and will provide those with past experience the opportunity to share their knowledge. This technique works with all members of your class, including those who have been made redundant.

4) Use the Motivational Interviewing method

As you can imagine, redundancy can largely damage someone’s confidence. They may have taken up retraining to help them feel confident in their abilities again.
Motivational interviewing is a good method of evoking a positive and motivated response from your students. The steps to take when using this method are as follows:

• Engaging – establish a relationship based on trust and respect between yourself and your student.
• Focusing - using an ongoing process to maintain direction.
• Evoking – encourage confidence in your student by using their own goals and motivations to inspire your training.
• Planning – create a plan of action with the view to reach the students goals that you and your student commit to.
  
  

Motivational interviewing can be done in office hours or before lessons even start to help you fully understand what your student hopes to gain from this course. It’s one of the best ways to encourage your students by showing them you actually care. 

Always remember that anyone can be retrained but it takes a dedicated trainer to do an effective job.

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