The profession of trainer is fairly recent and owes its current development to the various legal provisions introduced in recent decades.
Indeed, since the “Professional Future” Law of 5 September 2018, each employee has the freedom to follow training courses financed by the CPF or personal training account.
These measures, as well as the willingness of companies to focus on people, have largely favoured the development of the training profession.
Professional trainers are therefore in great demand today and their profession generally offers a rich and varied range of tasks.
Depending on the location, the audience, the needs of the company, the level of experience of the learners or the teaching practices used, the tasks are diverse.
What you will find in this article :
- What is a trainer?
- What is the difference between an in-house trainer and an independent trainer?
- Quelles sont les qualités d’un formateur indépendant ?
- What training should I take to become an adult educator?
- What are the administrative steps to become a trainer?
- What legal status should you choose to be a trainer?
What is a trainer?
Generally speaking, a trainer is someone who transmits, trains and leads a group of people in theoretical or practical teaching on a specific subject and in skills that he or she masters.
He or she may be responsible for defining the educational content (if this responsibility is not carried out by a dedicated team), creating the training materials for the trainees, devising the games and practical exercises, and devising the evaluation method.
The trainer may work in different sectors as an employee or freelancer, in a large company or in a professional training organisation.
They may have training engineering tasks in addition to their teaching and transmission role.
What differentiates them from teachers in initial training is the speciality of the teaching provided and the audience they address. Usually they are themselves trained or have extensive experience in the profession in which they are training their trainees.
Let us now look in detail at how to become a trainer.
What is the difference between an in-house trainer and an independent trainer?
In 2021, the professional training market is estimated to be worth 31 billion euros according to a study by Ludolab.
As a qualified trainer, you can work under various statutes. It is currently an attractive profession. Indeed, the demand from companies is constantly increasing. And, depending on the type of assignment, the work is very varied.
Generally speaking, professional trainers work either independently with one or more clients or internally in a company with a salaried contract.
Professional trainers are then salaried, even if this type of contract is tending to disappear 😞
Indeed, the training sector is becoming more and more competitive, which leads vocational training centres to call on independent professionals for specific assignments.
In recent years, the sector has become more attentive to the legitimacy of its teaching by choosing trainers who are experts in what they will teach 🏆
The aim is to ensure that the lessons taught and the skills shared are as close to the reality in the field as possible. Most professional trainers therefore carry out their missions as occasional or freelance trainers.
In order to remain free in their choice of assignments and to avoid the fees levied by the freelance administration companies, many professional trainers therefore prefer to register as self-employed.
To find out more about freelance administration, you will find in this article the 3 main categories of freelance administration companies.
Quelles sont les qualités d’un formateur indépendant ?
Passion is usually the driving force for people who work as trainers!
Trainer
You must therefore be a good teacher and enjoy passing on your knowledge to others.
To be effective in your actions, the trainer you are and will become must also be dynamic and enthusiastic.
It is a question of transmitting to future professionals the desire to practice the profession for which they are being trained.
The trainer must therefore be a driving force and know how to motivate his or her learners.
At texageres, we have created the Learning Experience to put the learner at the centre of our educational activities.
In the course of their missions, professional trainers are required to teach very different audiences.
They must therefore be able to adapt to their audience and readjust their interventions so that the information they provide is as relevant and effective as possible.
Your number one objective? That the learners leave enriched and with new skills after working with you!
Depending on the status chosen for their duties, trainers must also be able to work alone 💪
Autonomy and management are therefore two essential skills to be a trainer.
What training should I take to become an adult educator?
The job of trainer requires some prerequisites. There is no compulsory training to follow nor any particular diploma that indicates the function of trainer.
However, it is essential to have a diploma equivalent to a BAC+2, BAC+3 or BAC+5 in the field taught and to be able to justify professional experience 🤓
To be a professional trainer, you can validate a training of professional trainer for adults or FPA, of level BAC+2. You must justify experience in the field you wish to lead.
Over the years, additional training courses have been developed which enable people interested in the profession of trainer to master the skills of pedagogy and training engineering.
These courses are usually offered by universities or vocational training institutes themselves.
The most common courses are the following:
- Trainer in a professional environment
- Professional degree in engineering, consulting and training management
- Education sciences
- Some courses are accessible through continuing education or work-study programmes, which make it possible to keep a professional activity in parallel
What are the administrative steps to become a trainer?
If you choose to be a self-employed trainer, you will have to complete a number of formalities. In particular, you will have to set up a company.
To do this, an application must be made to the URSSAF in your region, which will give you a SIRET number.
Every quarter you will have to declare your turnover and pay the relevant contributions.
What legal status should you choose to be a trainer?
As an employee, employment is possible as a job holder or as a temporary employee.
Trainer
While the former receives a salary for full-time employment, the latter is paid on an assignment basis, but always as an employee.
Trainers can therefore be employees or self-employed.
The status of occasional trainer therefore refers to the employability of professionals by training centres for a maximum of 30 days per year and per training organisation.
Casual trainers are paid by the day or half-day and do not need to be multi-skilled as they will be called upon to pass on their skills in their own area of expertise 🧩
To work as an occasional trainer, you do not need to register as a self-employed person.
At the end of each assignment, you will receive a salary and a payslip, just like a regular employee. Your social security protection is that of an employee.
As far as self-employed trainers are concerned, there are various possible legal forms for carrying out their activity. At the start, the most advantageous legal form is the micro-enterprise, which allows for an interesting reduction in contributions.
Depending on the increase in turnover, it is then necessary to change to another status such as SARL, SAS or EURL.
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Let’s recap!
We’ve summarised the benefits and hurdles of becoming a trainer:
😎 Benefits:
- The diversity of the audiences encountered and the assignments makes the profession of trainer very attractive
- Developing the best teaching strategies to transmit knowledge is a particularly stimulating aspect of training assignments
- The rapid evolution of many professions fosters a need for training. Good prospects for professional application exist.
🚧 Hurdles :
- Freelance trainers may be subject to a certain degree of insecurity because they work on an ad hoc basis at the request of companies and organisations and often have a temporary status
- The job requires a high degree of mobility and availability
- You must like to work independently, know how to challenge yourself and train to develop your practices on a regular basis.
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Are you interested in the profession of trainer or would you like to become a trainer for texageres? Contact us now!
