manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

Your role is to be a facilitator. This means that you do not lecture or dominate the training
sessions. Allow the participants to do most of the talking and activities. Your role is to encourage
everybody in the group to actively participate in all sessions and to create a positive environment
for interaction and dialogue among the participants. The materials in the training package will help
you to provide information and to stimulate thinking and discussion among the participants.
As a trainer and facilitator, it is very important that you:
• Give a brief introduction at the start of each workshop and training session on the aims and
outputs. Give enough background information, but be clear and brief.
• Provide a summary of main findings, conclusions and suggestions for future work at the end of
each session or before the start of the next one.
You do not need to be an expert on everything. An important role of a facilitator is to ‘sign post’, in
other words to channel participants to sources where they can obtain the information that they
seek. If you feel that you do not know enough about a subject, for example, domestic violence or
occupational health and safety risks in specific industries, invite an expert on the subject. Try to
ensure that such experts do not lecture, but share information in a participatory way.
The training package contains a collection of games, exercises, case studies, stories and role
plays. These training materials have been selected after an in-depth review of existing materials on
this subject in Cambodia and at the international level according to their relevance in putting main
messages across. They have been used and field-tested with positive results in your and other
countries. However, it is important that you make your own selection of materials, that you adapt
the training sessions, the exercises and case studies and provide additional materials relevant to
each group, the local culture and situation. The materials can be shortened, simplified or replaced
by other materials, as you see fit.
2.6 Designing a training programme
In order to be successful in your training it is very important to spend time at the design stage. With
a well-prepared training programme half the work is already done.
Basic Questions
Designing a training begins with basic questions like:
1. What is the aim of the training?
2. Who are the target group: will there be a mixed group, or men- or women-only groups.
3. What is their ethnicity: Are there socio-economic, cultural and/or religious differences among
participants or between participants and trainers? Try to ensure that one or more of the
trainers or facilitators belong to the same ethnic group as participants.
4. What is their educational level: this affects the level of information you provide to the group.
5. Communication: what language do the participants speak, do you need an additional (local)
facilitator or translator.
6. Where do I organize the training: in the village, at the workplace or at a school.
7. At what time: keep in mind the agricultural seasons, for some people it is difficult to find free
time during the agricultural planting or harvesting season. If you do something with children you
should schedule it after school. With women you have to keep in mind their workload and find
out when they can attend. Assembly-line factory workers may be too tired on workdays, so
sessions may only be possible on weekends.
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