Train the Trainer training in Lausanne · canton of VaudTrain-the-trainer programmes in the canton of Vaud: when should guidance be reduced for experienced participants?

In the canton of Vaud, the proximity of EPFL and UNIL, medtech, international sport, food-industry groups on the Riviera and scale-ups across the Lake Geneva region makes it plausible that participants with very different knowledge will attend the same course. For a training manager, the question is specific: how can novices receive enough support without imposing explanations that experienced participants no longer need?

What the literature establishes: explaining a solution can support learning

John Sweller and Graham Cooper (1985, Cognition and Instruction) examined the use of worked examples in learning algebra. Their experiments show that studying detailed solutions can facilitate learning compared with practice that relies more heavily on problem solving. For a trainer, the value lies in making the reasoning steps visible rather than asking novices to discover them from the outset.

The mechanism: support can become redundant

Slava Kalyuga, Paul Ayres, Paul Chandler and John Sweller (2003, Educational Psychologist) review research on the expertise reversal effect. Guidance that benefits novices can lose its usefulness, or even hinder learning, when the necessary knowledge is already available. Processing an external explanation that has become redundant can then consume resources without providing additional support.

The premature conclusion: let all experts work independently

It would be excessive to conclude that experienced participants no longer need support. Expertise is specific to a domain and a task: in a hypothetical example, a university researcher might master scientific content without knowing how to design a learning activity. Guidance should therefore be adjusted according to the knowledge relevant to the exercise, not status, length of service or apparent confidence. (our executive and employee training programmes)

The limits: from research tasks to professional training

Experiments involving algebra do not directly validate an approach to training in medtech or an international sports organisation. The review of expertise research does not provide a universal threshold for removing explanations either. A satisfaction questionnaire is insufficient for this decision: finding a session enjoyable or too elementary does not directly reveal what has been learned.

A practical check in Lausanne

In a hypothetical SHR train-the-trainer workshop in Lausanne bringing together medtech specialists and team leaders from a Lake Geneva scale-up, start with a short individual learning-design exercise assessed against a shared rubric. Within each observed starting level, then allocate participants either to studying a fully annotated example or to studying an example with some steps left to complete, before giving everyone the same new individual task without assistance. Record the quality of this work against the same rubric and the completion time, then examine whether the value of guidance varies with starting level. This local test provides a reference point for adapting the next session, not evidence that can be generalised across the canton. To go further: explore the Train the Trainer training in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.

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