Mentoring or on-the-job training by experienced staff or external trainer

If you are considering training "on-the-job" in-house take a look at the list below to help you plan and execute your training programme with all eyes open.  

Advantages 

1. Training an employee in their own working environment, with equipment they are familiar with and people they know can help they gain direct experience to a standard approved by the employer
2. Employee may find that they have more confidence to use the equipment if they are supervised and guided as they feel they are doing the job right.
3. Employees may feel more at ease being taught or supervised by people they know rather than complete strangers
4. Managers or supervisors can assess improvement and progress over a period of time and this makes it easier to identify a problem intervene and resolve problems quickly
5. This type of training is also productive, as the employee is still working as they are learning
6. As training progresses and the employee begins to feel more confident, this confidence would allow them to work at a higher standard and ultimately be more productive
7. Training "on-the-job" would also prove an opportunity to get to know staff they might not normally talk to
8. Mentoring or training on-the-job can work our very cost effective

 Disadvantages 

1. Teaching or mentoring is a specialisation in itself, unless the person mentoring or training has the skills and knowledge to train, this would mean that the training would not be done to a sufficient standard
2. The person teaching or mentoring may not be given the time to spend with the employee to teach them properly, which would mean substandard training has been achieved and learning has only been half done.
3. The trainers may posses many bad habits and pass these on to the employee being trained
4. If the trainer has been given limited time to train the employee, this would mean that the skill or knowledge has not been fully understood
5. If a trainer has been brought into the company externally they might not be familiar with the equipment fully or layout and this would waste time