Speaking from experience: What makes for a unique training?

“After the conclusion of the first phase of training, I felt that I had developed a good understanding of assessment and was proud that I was in a position to contribute towards the educational framework of Balochistan. Nevertheless, it was a highly pleasant surprise to learn that I had also been selected to become part of the ‘Training of Trainers’ cohort, all of whom received further training to develop our capabilities as trainers in assessment. I myself have worked as a Master Trainer of teachers since 2011, and have taken multiple such trainings from institutions such as the Society for International Education and the British Council, even going so far as travelling to the United States in 2015 for specialised training. Yet, I can say with complete surety that AKU-EB’s training has been the most personally transformative by far. I had initially thought that it would be similar to my past experiences, but the amount of focus on planning/delivery, adult learning principles, powerpoint presentation planning, etc, were beyond anything I had previously imagined. It truly felt as I were actually being prepared to act as a Master Trainer, which is exactly what I was seeking.

Even more notably, the AKU-EB team reinforced the theoretical aspects of this ‘Training of Trainers’ by including us in their own process when conducting last year’s training on student assessment for a new cohort of participants. I had imagined that our involvement with the AKU-EB team would only consist of one or two sessions, but instead it has engaged us completely throughout every step of the process. In particular, the mentor-mentee relationship that sees ‘Training of Trainers’ participants paired up with members of the AKU-EB team has been invaluable -- the fact that we are asked to run demonstrations of our training sessions, are given suggestions for improvement, debriefing sessions following our session, and the Monitoring & Evaluation process, are all incredibly effective mechanisms of feedback. I received an 89% rating on my own training session, and it truly felt as if I had earned it through the work that I put into preparing so hard -- not once did I feel a sense of nervousness or hesitation, because I knew that I had done my absolute best. Despite the fact that we often work from 8 am in the morning till 9 pm at night alongside the AKU-EB team, I have never felt tired or like complaining because of how engaging the work is. I firmly believe that this experience has been a vital component of the ‘Training of Trainers’: It has, quite literally, allowed us to practically apply the concepts that we learned, exactly in the same way as AKU-EB teaches its own students in school. I am hopeful that any future individuals lucky enough to benefit from this ‘Training of Trainers’ will undergo a similar experience, and that together all of us will become assets for our province!” Muhammad Dawood Kakar, Subject Specialist, English and Teacher Education, Provincial Institution for Teacher Education (PITE)