The Essentials Mix: How to keep learners engaged on training courses

I am re-releasing some older episodes that had really useful content, although I might be a bit crap - but it's only the third I recorded!

In this one, I talk to Shirley Gaston of Azesta about how to keep learners engaged throughout the training event.

This is Shirley's specialist subject, something she's been passionate about for years, In the podcast she outlines three different approaches for ensuring the delegates on the course stay engaged.

Shirley Gaston is the founder of  the experiential learning company Azesta which has been developing people for 16 years. As such, she is one of the driving forces within the company. She values openness and this quality is intrinsic to her learning programmes.  It is important to her to be really approachable and, although highly professional, her overt friendliness is part of her style.

Shirley’s passion for learning through experience has led to her working in learning and development for her entire career and she was approached four years ago to be the sole distributor and ‘face’ of Metalog in the UK.  She has a first class degree in Education as well as a Post Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Professional Training and Development.

She also holds numerous psychometric qualifications and has attended many short trainer development programmes as well as providing them herself for her own staff and associates. Working directly with her own clients, she specialises in leadership, engagement, coaching skills, sales and customer service. Working with trainers, she shares her passion for programmes that fully involve the learner and incorporate active and creative reviewing techniques. She has had several articles published particularly in the field of experiential learning and outdoor management development and is currently working on her first book on the subject.

Shirley lives in Yorkshire with her partner, three small children and a cat. She enjoys a range of outdoor activities, theatre, running her book group and is also a Humanist wedding celebrant.