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One of the chief benefits of booking in-house (on-site) training, as opposed to sending your people off to a training centre to attend a pubic course, is that the training can be customised to suit the specific needs of your organisation. When booking in-house training courses, be sure to make this clear to the training company and brief them fully on your requirements. Produce a list of key topics that need to be covered after discussing the matter with the people who will be attending the course, their manager or someone in your organisation who already has the skills the trainees are looking to acquire.

Provide examples of your work to the training company before the course so that they have a good idea of the kind of documents your staff will need to create or modify (Naturally, you should first remove any sensitive or confidential information!).

A good software training session will give users plenty of chances to practice the skills they are being taught. Ask the training company to incorporate your own documents into these practical exercises given to trainees on the course. For example, if your people are being shown how to produce brochures, have the trainer ask them to produce pages from some of your own brochures during the course to check that they are mastering all the key techniques.

It is important to find a suitable room where you can realistically conduct a training session and where the trainees can focus on learning without distraction, discomfort or interruption. If your company does not have a proper training room then a meeting room can be used. Delegates should be able to see the trainer from their seat without having to crane their necks or twist uncomfortably. Each trainee should also have exclusive use of a laptop or workstation for the duration of the course and enough space to operate a keyboard and mouse.

The correct version of the software should be loaded on each person’s machine and, ideally, all delegates should be using the same version of the software. For example, running a course on Microsoft Word where some delegates have Word 2007 and others 2003 would be a nightmare, since the two versions have such key differences.)

A workstation or laptop fixed to a screen projector will enable the trainer to demonstrate the software efficiently. This is especially useful with a large group. If your company does not have one, they can be hired for around 25 per day. The training room should also have a whiteboard and pens.

To ensure that the training is effective, delegates must be available for the duration of the course and treated as off-limits to other staff members. Ideally, everyone should treat them as absent from the office until the course ends. As well as this, they should agree that the course will benefit them and be highly motivated to do the training having been shown how it will help them to work more effectively.