Sharing my experience with a Fab Training Company!

03/06/05

Attention: Lynne
Premier Training International
Premier Training International - Health & Fitness training courses available in the UK from Premier Training International Ltd. Premier's range of vocational fitness training courses ...
http://www.premierglobal.co.uk/

REF: Student Testimony re: specifically Paul – Our Instructor – Feedback on Performance

Dear Lynne,

You may recall we spoke before my course? Please feel free to use my letter as a recommendation for your courses, where appropriate. I am very pleased to be able to provide feedback on a week’s course with Premier Training International in this personal approach (I will fill and return the Customer Sats form also).

Paul, Brett and Matt, the Windsor Leisure Courses Management Team from the onset, were efficient, very clear and approachable, really welcoming… whilst we students were an unruly, undisciplined group, with some ‘big wise-cracking personalities’ and some shy, reserved gentle individuals too.

To give you a landscape of the type of individuals they had to deal with, we had everything from a lady with roller coaster emotions to a chap who had made real personal sacrifices whereby he had taken a heavyweight loan to pay for his course, and left his job committing himself entirely to this endeavour. We had younger members fresh out of school… and female rugby players, and those who had spent office time in I.T realising they were losing some financial security to be here and thus it meant a lot to them. Now with such a variety of backgrounds, education, and maturity levels as well as ages from 18 to 50, it was a challenging role for anyone, in our case: Paul our conscientious, enthusiastic and determined trainer to handle such an eclectic group, without shooting one of us, though he knows how to use firearms and may have had a pistol next to the computer.

Each of the above management team brought their own personal people skills to the group and the general consensus was very positive. I would like to specifically mention Paul, because we spent a lot of time with him and quite frankly from my own background (currently in between jobs), as a Quality Manager (European Standards) for corporate type companies, where efficiency, cost effectiveness, time management, effective communication, and performance quality are paramount to my role, he was simply put an inspiration.

Paul has a slight stutter about 1-2 secs duration, very endearing when he first engages in casual dialogue, yet seconds later, once he is underway, he is awesome, his enunciation is perfectly controlled, his voice flawlessly pitched, to suit a theatre type of audience, and his delivery at a steady well managed pace, intelligently responding to the classes frequent peaks and highs of attention-span.

His command of the group shows his military background of leadership because he certainly had control of his large class, which is hard there were 20 people (a rabble) in that group, and that isn’t easy. His presence was such that his logical explanations, dramatic self expression and then focussed specificity on complex targeted subjects was executed with such precision and erudite knowledge that behind the scenes during breaks individuals were consistently running the same commentary… ‘It’s easy for him he has all this background, and he knows what he is talking about… but it looks tough to learn’…. Yet he was right when he said we were learning and relearning… to my complete surprise his technique and agility in manoeuvring between subject matter, such that bearing in mind there were three different course groups in there, myself a one week attendee, others doing a month, some others doing 6 weeks and then the entire 12 week program… I think… well the fact that he could disseminate the subject matter to be appropriate for each of these different levels, and to cover the requirements was quite remarkable. Astonishingly, of all we all went from ‘sloth to… cheetah’.

I heard from someone who had passed the course previously (the one I am on ‘exercise to music’….) and she expressed how well the course fit the exam requirements. That is in itself a great commendation. Only one young man did fall asleep during the first two days of the week – but his throat hickies (love bites) were reasons for his all night efforts in a related subject that of biology.

When we went into practical exercises at the end of the week, again Paul’s expertise and depth in background showed he was heads up to anything I have seen in the 20 years of gym work that I have experienced. Even there he maintained control, and was often observed involved in the subtlest change in posture to enhance the ‘stretch’ exercises, to take them from comfortable to excruciating pain, where none of us can walk today without the aid of good walking stick.

I have taught many presentations myself and I was genuinely impressed with his responsiveness and kindness to each of us, the Windsor team appeared to have this down to an art, where impeccable manners, a comforting but professionally detached approach was deployed, yet when perhaps a deeper compassionate style of responsiveness was required this was also in clear evidence. I was hoping in fact relying on favouritism as this has held me in good stead through school, but I was disappointedly treated exactly the same as the rest of the group!

Finally, I am seriously looking at adding more courses to my portfolio, something I really wasn’t intending to do… mainly due to the experience I have just had in finishing this first stage. I was in some ways an active resister, as I was forced to do this course due to a rule change to maintain my insurance with REPs I appreciated the reasoning but to be frank with you felt obliged at a time when I have to find a full time role to obviously just survive, and so I went into it quite reluctantly, and this negative attitude impacted because whereas I usually embrace subject matter and find it very easy to handle complexity, this time I was struggling to memorise information and some of the sport concepts were hard for me to grasp, which made me frustrated, and appear stupid. The price of which was 11 press-ups! Unfortunately my ineptness, dumbness, and blank expression went on for about 4 days, and then I clicked during one afternoon and found myself re-thinking my stance, from that point I reverted to being smart, and had the attention span of a cat with a mouse. Particularly as he made good his threats, and if you have not met him he is FIT, imposing, has a steely glance, and a pistol!

Anyway, I am hoping to look at the other courses and I am quite determined to force myself back into a school chair… particularly if the other trainers are as great as he is, and judging by his character, I am certain they would not last in his efficient organisation if they were any less quality performers!

Well, that is my summary, and I appreciate this is lengthy but I was keen to do this – irrespective of whether I pass or fail, I have left the course with great memories of the whole experience. Also, just for your information I have attended approx. 70 seminars, workshops, training programmes, over the last 24 years, and as a quality manager during that period, for approx. 13 years, with a client base of customers such as companies like IMRO Bank, NOMURA, SHELL, Mercedes Benz, Pedigree, Dun & Bradstreet, Marks & Spencer’s, M.O.D, whilst being an advocate for ISO9000 QMS, I believe I am someone who is skilfully competent in discriminating between high standards in quality and poor quality.

Please feel free to include my letter in any manner for your marketing purposes; I can be contacted to verify most of these details. Thank you for your kind consideration.

Yours sincerely,



Sapphire