So, we’re forever looking for more trainers to join our network. It’s then a question of making sure that our sales team are familiar with them…
— Karen Winfield, Global Operations Director, PD Training
In this week’s episode, we’re talking to Karen Winfield, who together with Paul Findlay manages Professional Development Training Pty Limited (PD Training), a 25-person training organisation headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. Karen was very kind to give us her time this morning to tell us how she came to be involved in training and what has made her training business a success.
Whilst on a training contract in the South-Pacific in 2015, which took me to Samoa, Papa New Guinea and Vanuatu, my last port of call was the city of Brisbane. I was very impressed with Brisbane. It’s a modern, thriving business hub with excellent infrastructure. I therefore began the conversation by asking Karen what it is like to run an international training business from there.
Karen explains how she and Paul have built the business from the ground-up to the point where PD Training now services a range of international government contracts and runs a substantial team of over 300 trainers. Between them, this team of trainers delivers a portfolio of approximately 200 programs. 30 of these including ‘resilience’ training are most frequently in demand by PD Training’s clients.
Karen goes on to explain which qualities and experience she looks for when interviewing prospective trainers to join her team. As she tells her clients, ‘all of the best planning and tailoring is wasted if the trainer isn’t suitably experienced, qualified or just isn’t the ‘right fit’ for your team and culture.’ Enjoy the episode and remember to check out the transcript as well as the links below!
Biggest takeaways you don’t want to miss:
- How Karen went from being an accountant to running an international training business
- How PD Training identify, qualify and onboard prospective new trainers
- How Karen manages a team of 300+ trainers across multiple locations
- Which are the top 30 skills in demand by customers of PD Training
- Why Karen and Paul (Co-Founder) invested in a proprietary psychometric tool
- Which lessons Karen learned from starting operations in the USA
- What the ‘Fast-Five’ series is and how it helps trainers to share their knowledge
- Which advice Karen would give to prospective trainers
Resources mentioned in this episode:
PD Training – Homepage of Professional Development Training Pty Ltd.
Leading Dimensions Profile – LDP framework used to measure behavioural preferences
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – Internationally-recognised psychometric evaluation tool
Fish Team Building – “FISH!” philosophy to help organizations create happy workplaces
Org Dev Institute – Creating and providing HR-support tools and services
Episode Transcript
Click here to read the transcript for this episode