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It’s a beautiful Wednesday.
The team and I are in Funzi village for a three-day business skills and financial managementtraining with members of the Funzi Eco-credit group.
We begin with dua, the Islamic prayer, followed by introductions.
I then explain that we will start with a pre-training evaluation to understand the participants’ level of understanding of the key training topics. According to the training programme, this should take approximately 20 minutes.
I ask the participants who are comfortable reading and writing to raise their hands.
About 20% did.
I immediately knew that the evaluation would take longer than planned.
We had to support the other participants to complete the evaluation forms. What was supposed to take 20 minutes took about an hour.
This meant that we had to adjust the training plan. We could not cover all the topics planned for Day 1.
Rather than rushing through the content to stay on schedule, I explained this to the participants and asked if we could start Day 2 earlier to make up for the lost time.
They all agreed, and the training continued well.
On Day 3, our plan was to cover business record keeping. This was one of the expectations the participants had shared during the pre-training evaluation.
At this point, I wondered whether everyone would benefit from a session on business record keeping.
I then reminded myself that being comfortable reading and writing does not determine someone's ability to understand a concept.
So we continued with the session.
At the end, I asked some of the participants who were not comfortable reading and writing whether the training on record keeping had been beneficial to them.
One participant said:
“Madam Jane, I am so grateful that COMRED has trained us on record keeping. I now understand how to calculate profit from my business, and I have also learned different ways of expanding my business. Even though I cannot write, I have my children who are in high school, and they will help me keep my records.”
Someone's inability to read or write does not determine their ability to understand, learn or benefit from training. As trainers, we have to be willing to adjust our approach, be patient, and meet people where they are.
After the training, one of the participants told me:
“We have enjoyed the training. You understood that this is adult learning and you were patient with us.
About this reflection
This is a personal reflection from Jane Muteti, COMRED’s Program Manager, based on her experience facilitating business skills and financial management training with the Funzi Eco-credit group.
