Pike packs in the content here. Thorough and updated, this book should be a part of any trainer's library.

I am an independent corporate trainer and saw this book praised in a variety of places. I bought it and read it from cover to cover. While I was reading it, I kept saying to myself, "Isn't this stuff kind of simple?" When I finished reading it, I felt like I had not learned enough to justify the high price. These first impressions were not lasting impressions. Here is how I can tell: Whenever I feel nervous about a new training assignment, I open this book and quickly find solutions that turn my nervousness into confidence. I grew to understand that the simplicity I observed during my first reading is actually the result of skillful winnowing by an expert.

Because of its price, I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 stars. I understand the marketing justification for the price. Some stuff in the book is provided for HR professionals who train trainers. These people are usually buying the book with someone else's money. The publisher knows that and banks on it. But, given how much I continually get from this book, I figure at least the author has earned the extra money.

I've had a bit of a hard time finding books on training the trainer to train and I feel that this is THE book that does it best. I work for a new company and ended up doing most of the training of new employees. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and this book helped me to be more effective at it. I love the 'instructor led, participant centered' idea that he presents. It allows me to treat the trainees as adults but we still have fun. Being new to training I didn't feel that he was talking over my head. It was to the point, useful information that I was immediatly able to put to good use.

i bought this book as it was a a suggested read by a big american design software corpoartion for whom i was an authorised trainer.
having picked up most of my training techniques from teaching or other teachers, or indeed practically picked up, i was intrigues to refine my techniques or expand them.
But, i found very little here of use to me, i think this is much more useful to people eho train in the vaguer sense of the word, as i was running professional training courses, i actually found a lot of the material given i disagreed with in practice, to be honest you just could not run a prodessional graphic design course like this.
maybe the ideas of teaching in England are a bit more quirky and persoanlity based, but these ideas are either common sense or patronising of the audience.
maybe if you are in some kind of business arena and completeley new to the whole field theres something for you.
I got nothing out of it really, and ive been a professional trainer for ten years.

This is one of the best books I've read on adult training. I used many of the theories and techniques when helping to design a large computer training program for my company, and they worked very well. The key that Mr. Pike demonstrates is that adults learn best when they teach themselves. Thus, his "instructor led, participant centered" philosophy. If you have to deliver, or design, training programs for adults, this is one of the best guides to get.