Asked: Is there an appropriate ratio for classroom trainer:trainee?

Answered: The answer to this question is - it depends. What kind of experience level are the participants bringing? The greater the knowledge and experience, the more you can rely on participants to help with coaching and mentoring one another.

Is your primary objective to build skills or to convey knowledge? Skill building can require a lower participant-trainer ratio if only the trainer can observe whether the skill is being demonstrated effectively. Can you build an observation checklist that enables participants to easily observe whether a skill has been mastered? Then the ratio can go up again because the observation phase can be monitored by participants.

When you use the instructor-led, participant-centered approach that incorporates creative training techniques, you can generally teach more participants with fewer instructors.

Bob Pike, CSP, CPAE, is chairman and CEO of The Bob Pike Group and founder/editor of the Creative Training Techniques newsletter.