Rank: Forum user 
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Has anyone done any research into whether training carried out by an external company is a more effective learning experience than that carried out by an inhouse trainer?
We are looking at some working at height training, I am qualified to do this, but feel that if it is carried out by an external provider it would be taken more seriously. Does anyone else think like this or is it just me?
Carol
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Rank: Forum user
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Although I wasn't the person carrying out the training I often found that inhouse training wasn't taken as seriously becaue we weren't paying £300 or more a course for it so people thought it was ok not to turn up, forget it was on, turn up 1/2 hour late, think other things were more important etc...
On the other side of the coin, we carried out a lot of safety based training such as manual handling, abrasive wheels, working at height etc as inhouse courses and the main benefit I found was that the courses could be tailored to exactly what your organisation needed them to cover and to give reference to specific practices, procedures, incidents etc however guess you could still do this if you bring external trainers inhouse and provide them with the info rather than use public courses.
I think that any course, irrespective of whether it is delivered by an internal or external trainer, should be an effective learning experience providing the trainer is competent in what they do even if that means reinforcing existing knowledge rather that learning something new.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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All down to the trainer for me. Competence is a given, but the real ability to engage, educate, inform and hopefully inspire are the true skills which enable an effective learning experience.
fscott statements also true and I have several of those T-shirts.
We have used external trainers in the past to bring a wider experience to the workforce, and some of these have been excellent if not inspirational. That said, on the odd occassion where a substitute trainer was provided the whole thing fell flat.
Good external providers will happily take your in-house materials, standards etc and dovetail them into their presentation, so no qualms there.
Of course the only true way to measure effectiveness is to monitor the application of the learning by those doing the job.
I seem to recall the HSE commissioning a Contract Reserarch Report or two on this topic, and that might be worth an internet trawl?
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Rank: Super forum user
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It depends on what you want. We have wanted high impact training (for senior managers) and we purposefully brought in an external trainer who the big wigs could relate to. We (the H&S team) have also had issues with external trainers who are good at the theory but have not been able to explain what we actually require staff to do locally – we took that back in-house.
So as often comes up on this forum- ‘It’s horses for courses’
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