Professional Development Training: What Actually Works (And What’s Just Expensive Window Dressing)
Professional development training. Where do l even bloody start with this one?
I’ve spent the better part of two decades in this industry, running sessions, attending courses, and watching organisations waste serious cash on training that does absolutely nothing except tick boxes for HR departments. And before you think I’m just having a whinge, I’m essentially criticising my own bread and butter here. Been a workplace trainer in Melbourne for the better part of two decades, so I’m essentially criticising my own industry here.
The fundamental problem is that training gets designed in boardrooms by people who’ve never been on the shop floor. You know the type. New graduates with their fancy qualifications, armed with PowerPoint presentations full of jargon and academic models that sound fancy but fall apart the moment someone asks “okay, but how does this work in the real world when everything’s on fire?”
I was in a session last month won’t name the company, but it’s one of those big corporate training outfits and the facilitator spent the better part of an hour discussing “transformational leadership principles.” Pretty slides. Nice graphics. Then during the break, I watched him tear strips off the admin team because they’d messed up some minor detail.
That’s the industry in a nutshell right there.
Let me tell you what really makes a difference, though it wont win any innovation awards. One on one mentoring. Real mentoring, not those structured programs where they match you with whoever’s got a spare hour. I’m talking about pairing people who actually complement each other, then giving them time real time, not twenty minutes grabbed between meetings to work through issues together.
The training that changed my career happened with Bob, this gruff site supervisor in Adelaide. Followed her around for the better part of a quarter, seeing how she dealt with workplace drama, how she structured her day, how she knew which battles to fight and which ones to walk away from. No workbook. No certificate at the end. Just real skills from someone who’d mastered their craft over decades.
But you cant scale that, can you? Doesnt work for those profitable group bookings. So instead we get these cookie cutter training sessions where everyone sits in bland hotel function rooms, checking their phones, and goes back to their desk with a folder full of handouts they’ll never look at again.
There are definitely times when classroom training makes sense. Technical skills training is usually solid. Show someone how to use a new software system, let them practice it, job done. Safety courses prevent accidents. Compliance sessions avoid legal trouble. These are concrete things with measurable outcomes.
It’s the soft skills stuff that’s mostly rubbish. Management training. People skills. Collaboration workshops. Productivity courses. All the things that actually matter most for career progression, and we’ve turned them into these standardised, mass market courses that ignore the fact that every workplace is different.
Recently watched construction supervisors doing team building exercises designed for retail managers. Makes about as much sense as using the same playbook for brain surgery and baking cupcakes.
That construction supervisor needs skills for managing subcontractors and dealing with site disputes while keeping projects on track. The community worker needs approaches for crisis intervention and supporting vulnerable clients. Distinct problems. Different solutions. Same training program.
Here’s what really gets me we track all the wrong metrics. Attendance numbers? Satisfaction ratings? Cost per head? Meanwhile, nobody checks if the training made any real difference to performance.
I follow up with course attendees for twelve months. About 30% use something worthwhile from what we covered. That’s not terrible, actually most trainers see maybe 15% application rates. But it means seventy percent of the time and money spent is essentially pointless. Try explaining that to a CFO.
The stuff that sticks usually has three things in common. First, it addresses a real problem the person is currently facing, not some hypothetical scenario. Second, they get to practice it properly during the session, with feedback from someone who knows what they’re talking about. Third, someone follows up to ensure implementation.
Everything else is just overpriced entertainment.
Digital training modules are another level of useless. These online courses where people can finish “Strategic Management Fundamentals” while eating a sandwich. I’ve watched participants blast through comprehensive programs in record time without engaging. Their completion certificates look exactly the same as someone who actually put in the effort.
This might be controversial, but participants need to take some responsibility too. We’ve created this culture where development is done to people rather than with people. People expect miracles from just showing up to a course, then complain when it doesnt change their lives.
The participants who get the most out of any training are the ones who come prepared with specific questions, take notes, ask for clarification, and follow up afterwards. They treat it like serious skill building rather than a day off.
There was this bloke in one of my leadership programs, David from a logistics firm in Adelaide. Arrived with specific workplace scenarios, engaged deeply with every exercise, stayed back afterwards to work through particular scenarios. Within a year, he was running his own division. Coincidence? Maybe. But I dont think so.
The companies that get value from professional development treat it strategically. They assess actual needs, select targeted solutions, and build follow up processes. They dont just send people to random courses because there’s money left in the training budget.
Wesfarmers does this really well. Their management development programs are focused, hands on, and tied directly to business outcomes. They track career progression of participants and refine the programs based on what actually works. Not revolutionary stuff, just simple common sense applied properly.
The majority of businesses consider development a luxury instead of necessity. They’ll invest millions on new equipment or software, then resist at investing properly in the people who have to use it.
And the irony is that in most businesses, human performance is the biggest variable in success or failure. You can have world class systems and processes in the world, but if your people dont know how to use them effectively, you’re wasting your time.
This might upset my industry colleagues, but organisations should develop their own people internally. Your top people, the ones who’ve cracked the code on what works, developing others in your team. Context matters. Workplace context matters. Understanding your specific challenges and constraints matters.
External trainers like me should be brought in for specialist knowledge or when you need an outside perspective. But for core skills development? Your team probably understands the reality better than any outsider.
This isnt popular with my fellow trainers, but it’s honest. The training sector has persuaded companies to outsource everything, when they should be developing internal capability.
So where does that leave us? Professional development training will continue because organisations need it and compliance demands it. But maybe we can get serious about separating useful from useless.
End the fiction that brief sessions create lasting change. Begin tracking results that count. Concentrate on applicable knowledge with immediate use. And for the love of all that’s sacred, stop making people sit through training on stuff they already know just because it’s part of the program.
Real development occurs when experts share their knowledge with people ready to learn. Everything else is just paperwork.
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