There is truth in the saying “there are no inappropriate participants, only inappropriate methodologies”. Training as a human resource intervention may be made light and pleasant. Participants in our training courses are adults and as such they have peculiar characteristics. They have a wealth of experiences, have sense of direction, autonomous, goal oriented, prefers learning for immediate application, and not controllable by traditional classroom rules and regulations.

Knowing such characteristics will challenge us trainers, to make our teaching-learning approaches tick. One way of attaining this is to make our trainings light and enjoyable. This may be done by using methodologies that will bring out the juvenile or the “childlike” characteristics of the participants. In social technology trainings, for example, we can make use of group dynamics or role plays to stimulate their playfulness, creativity, and imagination. However, we have to process the activities and relate these to the topic at hand. For technical subjects, lecturette followed by method demonstration or practicum will make learning more concrete because they can learn more by doing, seeing, listening and interacting. Pure lecturing, brainstorming or case studies bores the adult participants . Combination of methodologies is a good strategy. The more senses used in the teaching process, the higher is the learning.

Training is one way of building the human resources in the countryside. This is the mandate of ATI - creating dynamic and responsive Agricultural Extension Workers, farmer entrepreneurs and rural based organizations. They are our partners in working towards the same vision and direction – producing staple food that are safe, healthy and sufficient. Let us continue building the greatest resource - the human capital through responsive training interventions.