Field trainers provide on-the-job training to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application of skills. They are used in various industries, including aviation, medicine, and franchises, to ensure workers are properly trained for their roles.
A field trainer teaches workers how to perform their jobs at their workplaces. This type of skill development is usually done in addition to classroom training. The types of jobs that employ field training tend to have a functional gap between theoretical knowledge of job requirements and practical application of skills. Field trainers bridge this gap by guiding workers through real-time working conditions.
In some jobs, there is a big difference between learning to do the job in the classroom and actually doing it in practice. For example, a pilot can study the process of flying an airplane, but the knowledge that can be gained from a book is not the same as the experience of flying an aircraft. An airline would probably never put a new pilot on a plane without ensuring that he has hands-on training in flying the plane under the supervision of an experienced pilot. The stress of the situation could easily overwhelm the new pilot to the point where he forgets more than he has learned. Having an experienced instructor in the cockpit ensures that there is someone who can help the pilot adapt to the position.
Another example of field training is the type of supervised internships that medical students and newly licensed physicians go through when they move into the profession. The field instructor is the experienced physician who monitors the trainees’ work and signs their diagnoses and treatments. It is your job to ensure that interns learn the practice of medicine and not just the study of medicine. Theory and practice are often separated by real-world factors that cannot be captured in a book.
The field instructor title is typically used when a job has a regular training program. In many employment scenarios, the field trainer visits different job sites on a rotating basis, assesses staff performance under live working conditions, and conducts additional group and individual training to align performance with expectations. A good example of using a field instructor title is with franchises. A franchise’s corporate office often hires field trainers to work with franchisees at their locations to ensure that operations conform to the corporate model.
Functionally, a field trainer can specialize in any type of on-the-job training. The position is as diverse as the need to facilitate workers for specialized roles. Intelligence agencies and military services use field trainers, as well as small businesses and large corporations in operational areas, from manufacturing to sales. In fact, any type of professional training that has a classroom component can also have an additional field component that provides opportunities for field trainers.
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