Page Updated on February 12, 2023
Being a freelance trainer or corporate trainer can be a great way to make a living but if there is one thing that can be tedious, it is creating the teaching and training materials. So what are ready made training materials (also known as off-the-shelf training materials)?
What Are The Benefits of Ready Made Training Materials?
One of the questions I get asked most as a training provider, teacher, business trainer, and coach, is if it possible to get pre-made or ready-made teaching materials?
The simple answer is ‘Yes’ and it can save you a huge amount of time!
Preparing the materials for a training session or workshop is where you can be drained of your precious time.
As a freelance trainer or corporate trainer, whilst the teaching can be over in a matter of hours, one or two days, if you are providing workshops, the preparation is what normally eats up all the time.
Managing your time is something that you would love to be able to do better right? Most of us struggle to have enough time for the pleasures of life and spend too much time working.
Whether for employees or for your own private workshops, isn’t your time better spent going for a nice long walk, working on other fun things, or having extra time off away from your computer?
So the benefits of ready-made materials are that they:
- include the chance to save days or weeks preparing training and teaching materials
- are designed by a professional (our materials are designed by Dr Valeria Lo Iacono who taught at various universities including the University of Bath, England)
- are created with pedagogy in mind (meaning with learning styles considered)
What Is Usually Included in Ready-Made Training Materials?
It really depends on who you buy the custom-made or ready-made training materials from but, to provide you with an example of what we include, in each package we offer:
- PowerPoint PPT slides
- Teacher’s handbook
- Students’ handbook
- Printable certificate
These items are normally available in digital form i.e. they are usable downloadable materials.
The most valuable file tends, for most teachers or trainers, to be the PowerPoint slides and on these, you will normally find:
- the slides
- teacher’s notes on the bottom of each slide
- activities included in the PowerPoints
For a 2-hour workshop, the PPT presentation will tend to be around 25 slides and through to 75 slides for a full-day training session.
The number of PowerPoint slides though will really depend on the specific topic on which training is being given.
Our Emotional Intelligence ready-made materials include a 61-slide PowerPoint file, for example.
Where Can I get Free Training Materials That Are Ready-Made?
If you are looking for FREE training materials then let me give you some links to go straight to some great freebies that you can use:
- Free Team Building games
- Free 54-page eBook with 25 Free Corporate training activities
- Free ice-breaker activities for teachers and trainers
- Free 5-Day Email Course for starting off as a freelance trainer
Where Can I find Training Materials for Sale and a List?
If you are interested in our own training materials list, you can find the main catalogue here or by clicking on the image below.
Free Customizable Training Materials
If you are looking for free customizable training materials, the best option is to surf the internet for free training materials (including our freebies) and to piece together your own training programs.
Full training materials packs that cover 1 or 2-day training workshops generally are NOT going to be available for free because weeks and sometimes a month’s work goes into designing them.
Packages that include the full PowerPoint presentation, all teaching notes, and everything else that comes with a well-designed teaching pack, are extremely time-consuming to design.
If you are on a very tight budget (or a non-existent budget) then take a look at all of these free to use training activities
Training Material Examples and Sample
If you are just getting started with planning and thinking about how to get started with designing a training program, you might be keen to see training materials examples.
Given how time-consuming designing training is, you will want to have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve from the start.
What Dr Valeria Lo Iacono of Symonds Training includes in the training she designs always includes the following (see the image below from the Confidence Teaching packages).
Corporate Training Materials Free Download
If you are specifically working on teaching materials for providing employee training, the design will be pretty much the same as standard training and teaching materials that are designed for adults.
Most of the free downloads we have for you on this site are based around corporate and workplace teaching, so you might want to consider these free downloads:
- Free Training Day Checklist
- 21 Free Ice-breakers for Online Teaching
- You can also try the Teachers Toolkit
- The British Council resources
Types of Ready-Made Training Materials for Companies
We recently did a dedicated post on this, where we wrote about what types of training there are for employee and staff training and so I won’t repeat that here.
You can click here or on the image below to learn more about the types of ready-made training.
What Are the Disadvantages of Buying Ready-Made Training Materials?
Certainly, there are a couple of disadvantages to buying in the materials you need.
Perhaps the most obvious of all disadvantages is the cost.
But, having said that, when you can buy a set of materials for a 1-day workshop for around £137 (about USD$180) that would otherwise take you between one to three weeks to design, it is perhaps an extremely smart investment in terms of your time.
If the topic you are teaching is really quite bespoke, i.e. specific to your business and staff, then creating your own materials might be the easiest way forward. In this case, off-the-shelf materials might not specifically match your needs.
If you have the time resources to create your own materials, then you have total control over the materials and what is included.
Dr Paul Symonds
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