Most of MDI’s work in its various projects around the world consists of training, or has a large training component: producing training manuals; organizing training workshops for journalists or editors; commissioning diversity-sensitive TV documentaries and training local staff to produce them; or working with journalism professors to produce complete reporting diversity curricula for their universities.

As the organisation has evolved, demands from various regions in which it works – or is invited into – have grown in volume and complexity, and the range of activities that it delivers in response has grown more sophisticated. However, the pool of experienced professionals with the ability to deliver these products has remained unchanged and is beginning to cause a drag on the organisation’s development and even to present a risk to the overall quality of its programs.

Recognizing that suitably experienced and skilled media diversity trainers are incredibly rare on the global media training market, MDI intends to train more of them on a regular, systematic basis. While the primary beneficiary of the output from this program will be MDI and its future projects, both the development of a specialized reporting diversity trainers-training program and the resulting pool of highly trained professionals will benefit the industry as whole as well.

A secondary consideration for this program is MDI’s desire to standardise its training packages in a more systematic way and to stamp the MDI brand on its media diversity training products more discernibly –both to raise the profile of organisation and to ensure quality control.

The ‘Training of trainers – development of MDI’s diversity trainer cadre’ program aims to meet both those needs. Over 9 months, it will lay the foundation for a series of annual ‘train-the-trainers’ workshops, taking as its starting point a thorough learning needs analysis and moving right through to a pilot training workshop. Our aim is to create, within three years, a pool of 25-35 trainers, at which point training will be reviewed and decision will be made as to whether the pool needs to be sustained through further regular training programs. The very first workshop is scheduled for November 2006.

For the training the MDI will use its   training modules developed over the last year, as well as accompanied case studies.

Learning needs analysis
MDI carried out a comprehensive survey that ranged from debriefing MDI operations staff; revisiting the many trainers’ reports and participants’ evaluations from present and past projects; to conducting interviews with past and present trainers, and with MDI partner organizations in the field.

Selection of trainers
MDI established selection criteria to identify MDI’s needs in a logical, fair and transparent way as well as a selection process.

Commission a training resource base (training modules)
MDI has prepared a complete set of training modules as a resource-base for use by trainers.

Design of training schedule
MDI has designed a complete ‘train-the-trainers’ curriculum, to be used at its annual regular ‘train-the-trainers’ workshops.

Pilot ‘train-the-trainers’ workshop
MDI will conduct a two-day ‘train-the-trainers’ pilot workshop, attended by MDI trainers and potential trainers. The workshop will train the trainers in both the ‘knowledge’ and the ‘skills’ sets

Training advisory board
An advisory panel of four people will oversee the ‘Training of trainers’ development process.