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It’s rainingtraining…

but will the crops grow?

by Guy Berger,

presentation to:

NCRF Training Providers Consultative meeting

3 August 2001

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Ideal logic•Community radio …

• Community of radio stations (NCRF) …

• Community of radio training providers?

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Get close up• Ideal vs reality

• a real community is constructed

• a real community contains both conflict & concord

• recognise real interests

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Trainers’ interestsTrue or false?

“Radio trainers are pure altruists”

Community radio is their passion - but also their livelihood.

They compete with each other.

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Who earns & who learns?True or false:

Trainers learn as much if not more from training, as do trainees.We work like bees, and we already get paid for it …

So why bother with something like a trainers’ forum?

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NCRF interests

• King of the network• Must deliver to members • Power to eat any out-of-favour providers

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TraineesTrue or false?

Many are professional trainees in search of junkets

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Pray they’ll stay

• Hand-up = hand-out?

• Drain vs new blood?

• Do we really make enough impact from our training?

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So, creating a community of trainers has to be a hard-nosed business!

And a very complex one ...

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We need to tackle pedagogy debates

Methodologies:

• Train on-site or not?

• Centre vs periphery

• Language

• Skill, talks & texts

• Stations as trainers

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More debate:• Skills transfer, or is it development?

• Go for breadth, with many trained, or

• Go for depth: train fewer, but better

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Debate: multiplier effect

Do trainees bomb out back at the station? Or is it “each one, teach one”?

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For a community to fly ...

• Need to agree on core principles about what makes for effective training.

• A shared perspective = sharing knowledge.

Some possible principles ...

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PRINCIPLE 1: Trainer-trainee-station

Learner-centred

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PRINCIPLE 1: Trainer-trainee-organisation Learner-centred

But context-driven

“As the strength of a chain is determined by its weakest link, so the least contribution of any one partner becomes the maximum level of effectiveness possible”

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PRINCIPLE 2: Ladder of learning

One-off and fragmented training experiences = resource waste

Investment in progressive learning over time

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PRINCIPLE 3: Training target A: Head

Train the brain:

information;

knowledge;

intellectual skills

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Training target B: HandsPractice:

Skills to implement

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Target C: Heart of the matter

If you forget about attitude, your training won’t fly.

You can train for media freedom & ethics, for anti-sexism, anti-racism, etc.

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Target D: The Wallet The point is:

• What’s the pay-off?• Financial• Organisational• Programme-related

•Is there a difference to the fulfillment of the community radio mission?

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Holistic trainingSo, training should be planned and assessed in terms of:

K nowledge

A ttitude

P ractice

P ay-off

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PRINCIPLE 4: PROCESSTraining is a journey- you can trace problems backwards

No application at the station Trainee didn’t learn much Cos poor delivery (or good, but …) Poor course design Because wasn’t based on needs, or …

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Process stages

If it did meet need

May be wrong trainees

Or workplace blocks

Or: training not the solution

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Process lessons

Front-end workis critical:you can’t salvage a wrong course or wrong trainees. Secrets of success can

also be traced through preceding stages

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PRINCIPLE 6: EVALUATE

Reaction: do they like it?

Learning: are they learning it?

Application: are they using it?

Pay-off: does it make a difference?

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Remember ...Good reaction learning

Learning application

Application pay-off

It’s a package.

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Realms ’n phases

Pre-course During Post-course

Reaction Reaction Reaction

Learning Learning Learning

Application Application Application

Pay-off Pay-off Pay-off

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Priorities: recommended % of courses to evaluate

Pre-course During Post-course

Reaction (100%)

Learning (75%)

Application Application (50%)

Pay-off (10%)

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Evaluation:• Begin before the beginning of a course;• Continue long after the end.• Cover reaction, learning, application, pay-off at every stage.

• Results: you’ll find what works, what needs work.

“It’s this training that did it”

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Agreed!

Sharing - in the interests of training - means we can combine forces to build a stronger sector

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Diversity amongst trainers does not preclude co-operation, collaboration, or even convergence in some cases.

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Competition

will - and should - continue, but alongside complaboration & collabetition

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Earn your stripes• Common standards will improve performance.• Centres of excellence will emerge.

eg. More expertise in kids’ programmes (W Cape); drama (KZN); education (Gauteng); etc.

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Providers will develop special and unique features.

Alongside a lot of shared overlap in basic training (which needs to be spread around the regions).

Rationalisation of training: Some will be organic, some will be planned

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Warning: without greater co-operation and communication, trainers will end up competing over the dead-body of community radio.Combine to help it conquer!

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The gain in trainServing the sector a servant of the sector.Providers should offer:* Needs-driven AND needs-arousing training.* Demand- AND supply- driven courses.A proactive community.

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Shapiro-Nel study of 14 stations’ training needs recorded that not more than one singled out:• journalism training, • covering poverty• reporting local govt.

Only 3 said gender training. None said training in media convergence.

Providers can’t ignore these areas!

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Working together - way to go• Accept diverse interests and major complexities.

• Recognise there’s a role for all, a need for all, & space for all.

• Acknowledge complaboration.• Be active agents.

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Fly in the ointment?How? • What does NCRF co-ordination mean? • Can centralisation include fair tenders and leveraging?• Is control a bad thing?

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Final thought • Training principle: The sign of a good trainer is not the impression developed among trainees about how well they were taught, but rather, how much they feel they have learned.Likewise, trainer egos

should be 2ndary within a network of providers.

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Lots of work needed ...

Cicadas make a racket, but when you look, you can’t find them!

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Training is a good thing:now let’s make it even better

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The End(or the Beginning?)

http://journ.ru.ac.za/staff/guy/