An effective training program is a powerful catalyst for organizations to bridge skill gaps, improve bottom lines, and foster career advancement amongst employees. However, most training strategies and methods inundate trainees with content that fails to facilitate effective learning and development while meeting the demands of a modern workplace.

Training Concepts offers a fresh take on training with its live, dynamic, hands-on, instructor-led technology training.

Powered by a mission to create bigger and better futures for organizations and individuals, Training Concepts offers high quality, value-driven training to meet your needs today and grow with you for tomorrow.

In an interview with the editorial team of Manage HR, Richard Basile, owner and VP of Training Concepts, discusses at length how their technology and professional development services enable clients to achieve and exceed their goals.

Please provide a brief overview of Training Concepts.

Founded in 2002, Training Concepts has been a leading technical training and consulting company with a goal to offer robust learning and development services. As our key focus lies on learners and their learning journeys, we ensure all our courses are taught by highly experienced trainers and promote hands on class interaction. We also conduct daily evaluations to get real-time feedback from the students to help instructors improve their next sessions.

Besides live, in-person courses, we offer online learning integrated with a learning management system. We have developed various protocols for online students and deployed cameras in classrooms along with engaging strategies to provide them with an immersive, interactive classroom-like experience.

Our innovative learning platforms, study aids, and labs create a conducive learning environment for students to excel academically. We have established a success tracker for students, where we help them with resume writing, interview skills, and other career development requirements. We also offer an Alumni Policy to our students allowing them to re-enroll in a course they have previously attended free of charge.

What are some of the major pain points your clients face?

Training employees in technology and soft skills has been a top priority for companies, especially in the post-pandemic era of remote working. However, companies are struggling to achieve this goal due to the lack of resources allocated to training and efficient training strategies. We step in, discuss criteria like goals and budget, and help create a training plan to meet their individual needs. Companies are also looking to strengthen their infrastructure and security posture, enhance in-house technology, and upgrade HR support to manage employees effectively.

Can you throw light on your courses and other offerings?

We take a course-focused approach to learning and development, helping individuals hone their skillsets. With a range of certification tracks, we pave career paths for learners through our exclusive programs licensed by the South Carolina Commission of Higher Education. These programs include project management, Business Information Technology, networking and HR management. Trainees can complete our certification programs within six months and progress in their career.

We offer nationally recognized, industry-standard certification programs in all these areas, either at clients’ sites, online, or in our classrooms. These certifications help job aspirants, with or without college degrees, pursue their desired career paths and master the subjects.

For instance, as a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner, we help users become well-versed with Microsoft Teams and other tools to improve their productivity and efficiency. We provide end-user certification training courses to help master Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft 365. When it comes to cybersecurity, we combine consulting with our cybersecurity educational courses to bolster clients’ cybersecurity posture.

We also conduct dummy phishing attacks to give them hands on training experience.

Can you cite a customer success story?

We receive a huge volume of requests for customized courses. We draw upon the expertise of our certified trainers to create unique content to meet the needs of our clients. To cite an instance, we are currently providing Microsoft training programs for a national non-profit organization. We have developed various live, online seminar content specifically designed for their needs. We record the sessions so students can watch at their convenience if they cannot attend them live. They can also clarify their doubts by chatting with instructors during and after the sessions.

What, according to you, steers you ahead of the market competition?

Amid numerous online training options on the market, what makes us different is our dedication to helping students learn necessary skills and apply them in real life.

Unlike other training companies, we employ specialized teaching assistants (TAs). Students can form study groups for discussion in our dedicated study halls while our TAs officiate them. With the help of a TA in the class, instructors can navigate the flow of the session and identify and pay special attention to underachieving students. We also organize study weeks for individuals aiming to clear certification exams.

Our success is due in large part to the wealth of experience brought by our team, which ensures 98 percent student satisfaction. We provide coherent learning, where classes are of a shorter duration, allowing students to go back to work and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

We also deliver our “Prefer to Hire” program to help support and protect employers hiring an individual by offering additional training incentives. Job aspirants can go directly to the employer of their choice with the Prefer to Hire incentive package and maintain their competitive edge with Training Concepts’ ringing endorsement.

Drawing upon the deep-rooted industry expertise of our instructors, we take learning and development to the next level.