LAST week, Datuk K. Thangavelu and I conducted a Training-of-Trainers (ToT) for the Travel and Tours Enhancement Course (TTEC), an ongoing programme under the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) since 2012.
In 2019, we also co-conducted a ToT for the same programme. Recently, TTEC has been revised to help travel trade personnel cope with a different tourism landscape and everchanging scenario, and to equip them to be better prepared for future shocks.
Trainers were reminded that TTEC is a training programme with learning outcomes, but many tend to fall into a lecture mode. Listening to what is being said is less effective than written words, which could be read and reread on the spot or at a future occasion when needed.
If it were limited to disseminating information, then there is no need for travel trade personnel to attend this programme in order to renew their company licence with Motac. It would be more efficient and effective to email them the written texts, pictures, videos and slides.
What the audience sees and hears during presentation from the trainer may not be clear or will be quickly forgotten. It would be more of a syiok sendiri exercise when trainers are more eager to share their experiences and stories than listening to questions, answers and comments.
While lectures are teacher-centred, training is student-centred. The main aims of training are to increase skill levels in one or more areas of expertise, improve the level of awareness of participants and to boost their motivation to perform better in their jobs or businesses.
To do that, trainers should first ask participants to comment on a topic or reply to a question before explaining or disclosing the answer. Even if the audience were to remain silent, the exercise would prompt many to put on their thinking caps and be more receptive to learning. If trainers were to keep talking without pausing for participants to think or speak, it would result in information overload.
Daily, most of us consume tonnes of information online through force of habit but have gained little from such exercise. Without realising the importance, we will not act. To go beyond superficial knowledge, we need to focus, reflect and not rely on official definitions. If we cannot describe what we think we know in our own words, the information gathered is only superficial knowledge. We will not be prompted to apply or change anything.
Having trained thousands of industry personnel and tourism academics, including those with PhDs, I am no longer surprised if only a few can define meaningfully basic travel trade terms such as tourism, hospitality, visitor, travel agency, tour leader and tourist guide.
During normal times, most industry players could keep their business chugging along with the rest. Only those that took the trouble to explore discovered new frontiers became insightful, put in efforts to capture the market, and stood head and shoulders above their competitors.
For training to be more effective, trainers ought to use interactive methods to engage with the audience, and participants must think and speak instead of being spoon-fed. The contents of the programme are in the slides but the quality of training depends on the trainer and trainees.
Therefore, trainers should always ask participants to speak what is in their mind each time a header or line appears in an animated slide. When there is no response, trainer can then share something useful or interesting before the focus is shifted to the next line or slide. If not, the trainer would keep on lecturing and descend into a monologue session.
While the trainer may feel good to have shared his or her story or experience, the audience may not have understood or be able to relate to what was said or have long drifted away by their short attention span.
While I usually stand in front of the audience during training, I would walk around the room when asking questions and get participants to answer. While I try to make eye contact with everyone, I single out those who seem to be in a world of their own.
When starting a new topic, it would be better to begin by asking participants to talk about the problems they have encountered instead of going straight into a long list of dos and don’ts, such as in licensing and legal issues that include contracts and agreements, suits and settlements.
Sharing and overcoming common challenges should be the core of training, and using real examples are the best ways to learn and move the industry forward. But all too often, both trainers and participants spend too much time on hazy definitions and academic discussions.
Trainees must be induced to speak their minds as mistaken beliefs or wrong notions of one participant can also be held by half of the audience. Correcting any fallacy, misinterpretation or misunderstanding of one participant can also benefit half the audience.
Just as important, a knowledgeable trainer would be quick to confirm and praise what was correctly said. This would encourage others to speak up and crystallise their thoughts. The best way to learn is to teach. One must speak convincingly among peers, especially during training.
TTEC has undergone evolutionary changes each time it was revised, since 2012. But it was revolutionised in the latest revision in Langkawi at the end of last September, after the island reopened to fully vaccinated local tourists beginning Sept 16.
Malaysians tend to treat training programmes like academic courses, by giving great importance on the contents, expecting trainers to lecture and trainees to memorise what is taught. But such methods have only produced graduates that cannot solve real problems in the industry.
Although the four modules in TTEC are now more in line with current realities, the quality of training would vary. To extract the full value of this programme, participants must know and tell what their problems and challenges are, so that trainers can discuss them during training.
YS Chan is Asean Tourism Master Trainer for travel agencies, master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel & Tours Enhancement Course.
He is also a tourism and transport industry consultant and writer. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
