When selecting a vendor to provide training curriculum within the organization, consider the following criteria to enable comparisons between various training vendors:
- Content: How robust and complete is the content? How practical and usable is the content for participants once they complete the workshop? Can content be customized to be relevant to the organization? What types of activities are included in the content? Can a sample of content be provided?
- Background: What experience does (s)he have in this topic and with your type of organization? How does the trainer keep updated on the content (s)he is delivering? What are the trainer’s credentials related to the topic being delivered? How many years has the trainer vendor been in business?
- Client Experience: What types of clients has the vendor worked with in the past? How successful has the vendor been in working with past clients? Can references be provided?
- Teaching Philosophy and Methods: What is the trainer’s teaching philosophy and does it compare to the organization’s philosophy? What methods and techniques are used to train on the topic? How does the trainer ensure the material is relative to the participant and that they can utilize their new skills back on the job?
Once you have selected criteria important to you in evaluating the trainer vendor, consider weights to assign to each criteria. You might use a scale of 1 (not very important) to 3 (very important) to weight each criteria point as to how important that factor is to the organization and then use a scale of 1 (does not meet the criteria at all) to 3 (meets the criteria fully) to determine how effectively the trainer vendor meets that criteria.
Developing criteria important to the organization in selecting a vendor enables for selecting the best vendor to meet the organizational needs and enables for more ease in comparing vendors.
