3.5.3 Training Service Providers

We're in our final shake out for BRC 7 and Agents & Brokers (all-in-one), and the question came up about training services.

How should we assess suppliers of training? Should it be by company, and if so what certification should they have? What about individual trainers? How important is content/topic knowledge vs presentation skills?

Also, should internal trainers be trained in training as well as content?

It's quite a can of worms really, and there is a feeling that we go for "industry reputation" and "previous trading history", both of which are rather subjective?

I know it's not really a big issue, but poor training leads to poor results.

In my opinion, suppliers of training need to be assessed by risk, just like other suppliers.  What comes to mind are items like this:

What are the risks of they do not perform adequately?  (workers do not know what to do)

How can you mitigate that risk?  (overseeing content and testing)

If you cannot mitigate that risk, how can you guarantee that a provider will perform adequately? (asking for references, checking out information on the Internet, asking for them to be BRC certified trainers, ATE...)

That is how you would assess a training supplier.  What you need to show BRC is what your process will be.  Having it risk based is always good.

Martha