Train the Trainer: a playbook for workforce instructors

On-the-ground research with workforce trainers, turned into a learner journey and a playbook they could run without us.

“The best playbook is the one the trainer stops needing.”

Challenge

A workforce training program had strong instructors and no shared method. What worked depended on who was teaching that day.

Trainers delivering hands-on skills instruction, and the program leads supporting them.

Field research: interviews and observation with trainers in their actual sessions
A learner journey mapping where participants got stuck and where they gained confidence
A Train the Trainer playbook: session structures, facilitation moves, and checkpoints, co-created with the trainers who would use it

Co-created, not delivered. A playbook written for trainers gets filed. One written with them gets used.
We kept the playbook short enough to read before a session. Completeness lost to usability, on purpose.

A method the program could hand to a new trainer on day one.

Build a light feedback loop so trainers could propose changes to the playbook after each cohort.