How Teachers Can Get Experience Training Adults
This sounds obvious, but when filling an instructional design position, recruiters and hiring managers look for someone who can do the job. Being able to demonstrate that you have experience developing employees in the workplace will highlight your instructional design acumen.
If your resume shows you have only taught kindergarten, special education, or middle school science, that doesn’t translate to a corporate training environment. Unless you were an administrator or department chair, it may seem like all of your experience is solely in teaching children.
So how can you gain experience designing and developing training for adults when you are a K-12 teacher?
You have to create opportunities for yourself, such as the following:
Lead a session on a professional development day
Run a workshop for parents
Train other teachers in new technology platforms
Mentor interns or student teachers
Present at a conference
Volunteer to serve as a buddy for new hires and take part in onboarding
Participate in task forces or committees where you can shape the school’s processes
This might take a bit of initiative, but your ID applications will be stronger because of it. Channel your inner go-getter!
