Train the Trainer training in Geneva · canton of GenèveTrain-the-trainer in the canton of Genève: how can you check whether a taught procedure is usable at work?
Genève brings together international organisations, private banks, commodity trading firms and watch brands within a small area, with highly multicultural teams in which French and English coexist. For a training manager, the question is specific: how can you check whether a procedure explained in this setting can be applied, rather than merely recognised on a slide?
What the literature establishes: recall is not rereading
Henry L. Roediger III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke (2006, Psychological Science) show, in experiments using written passages, that recall tests can support delayed retention more effectively than additional reading. The advantage depends in particular on the assessment delay: immediate success alone therefore does not establish durable learning. For a trainer, this suggests asking learners to reconstruct the steps of a procedure without reference materials before explaining it again.
A second mechanism: transfer also depends on the workplace
Timothy T. Baldwin and J. Kevin Ford (1988, Personnel Psychology) present a review of training transfer that distinguishes learner characteristics, training design and the work environment. Their framework does not reduce transfer to remembering: it includes generalising what has been learned and maintaining it over time. A procedure that someone recalls accurately may still go unused if opportunities to apply it or the necessary support are missing.
The premature conclusion: more quizzes would be enough
One might conclude that train-the-trainer programmes should focus on teaching people to produce more quizzes. That would confuse retrieving knowledge with making decisions in a professional situation. A relevant exercise also requires learners to identify when the procedure applies, handle an exception and justify their choice. (our executive and employee training programmes)
The limits: do not confuse language with competence
Experiments on remembering texts do not directly demonstrate the effectiveness of training in complex procedures, and the transfer review is not a study specific to Genève. In a bilingual team, a hesitant answer may reflect difficulty expressing oneself rather than poor understanding of the procedure. Assessment should therefore distinguish the accuracy of the decision, its execution and the language requirements genuinely necessary for the role.
A practical check in Genève
Within SHR’s « Formation de formateurs » programme, one possible exercise would be to develop a hypothetical Genève case: a sensitive request in private banking, document approval in an international organisation, watchmaking quality control or exception handling in commodity trading. Before the session and then two weeks later on a comparable but different case, the participant would select and carry out the procedure using the tools normally available at work. The trainer would use the same rubric to record correctly completed critical steps, errors and requests for help, while keeping language conditions comparable. This comparison would provide a verifiable indicator of progress on the simulated task, without being sufficient to establish transfer to actual work or an effect attributable specifically to the training. To go further: explore the Train the Trainer training in Geneva in the canton of Geneva, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
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