What can I earn in training in Scotland?

How to get in… A CIPD qualification will help, along with any HR experience and any learning and development skills. Although less common, there are also opportunities for people who have backgrounds in general management, team leadership, or any position where training has played a major part in the role.

Strong organisational and people skills are a must, as you will be dealing with external companies and internal staff to design and implement training programmes.

What it involves… Training has three key areas: design, co-ordination and delivery. Courses must be based around the organisation’s needs. All members of the learning and development team should be involved in analysing the company’s training needs. They should also all be able to design and build the appropriate courses to meet these needs.

When the course has been completed, it needs to be evaluated as soon as possible.

Main responsibilities… The role requires a broad range of people and admin skills:

• Working with HR generalists to identify training and development needs.
• Designing, co-ordinating and rolling out training and coaching programmes, including induction, management development, and personal development plans for staff.
• Establishing and maintaining appropriate training processes and records.
• Producing cost justifications for training, and managing and monitoring training budgets.
• Having an input into strategy for management development, succession planning and talent management, and leading or co-ordinating initiatives as appropriate.

Moving up… Acquire knowledge of modern training solutions or learning and development tools, such as 360-degree feedback. You should also look to gain a professional training qualification.

The learning and development market is healthy and competitive, and there is plenty of scope for HR training professionals to develop if they are able to demonstrate the value of their ser­vice in a business context.

Even in the non-profit sector, a demonstration of commercial awareness and enthusiasm for your profession will often go a long way.