What is Training Operations and Manager Education?

Customer training teams have unique job roles and functions as compared to HR learning functions. Because customer training teams are offering education services to external customers and partners, the bar for overall training experience, flexibility, and measuring business ROI is high.

When fully scaled, your company’s customer training organization can provide multiple learning delivery options to best serve their customer base. In our eBook “How to Build a Customer Training Team,” we cover common roles found on training teams and why each one is important.

One key role is the Training Operations role — usually with the job title of Training Operations Manager. In this post, we’ll specifically discuss the Training Operations role and why it’s important.

First, What is Training Operations Management?

Customer training is a highly logistical function within an organization. The role of Training Operations is to oversee day-to-day responsibilities for the department, including scheduling and booking resources, managing student registrations, reconciling reports with finance, coordinating curriculum development, and other special projects as required. In some organizations, the Training Operations Manager is also responsible for data and technical systems, including administering the Learning Management System (LMS). He/she also manages software integrations and automatic information flow between training and other business units.

What are Job Requirements for Traning Operations?

Job requirements for a Training Operations Manager include:

• Monitor and evaluate training programs, processes and workflows for quality and effectiveness; make recommendations for improvement.
• Manage instructor schedules, coordinate class starts at multiple locations, and manage training equipment and materials including interaction with vendors.
• Design and prepare educational aids and materials.
• Oversee technical implementation of ILT events.
• Assess instructional effectiveness and summarize evaluation reports determining the impact of training and how it affects KPIs.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and subject matter experts regarding instructional design.
• Maintain updated curriculum database and training records.
• Conduct regular evaluations to identify areas for improvement in program offerings.

This role would likely sit on your Customer Success team, rather than in your Operations Department.

“As the Service Operations Manager, I oversee all logistics related to Instructor-Led Training globally. A large part of this job includes collecting all metrics associated with classroom delivery as well as professional service engagements. Analyzing these metrics I am able to help MapR determine where we are most profitable and markets we should grow in and which courseware we should be focused on creating. This role requires many hats as I am both customer facing as well as supporting Training and Professional services.”

– Jacklyn Flores, Worldwide Services Operations Manager, MapR

If you’re growing your team and looking to bring on additional specialists like someone to oversee training operations management, our eBook can help. Download our guide: How to Build a Customer Training Team.

Are you looking for a Training Operations role? Check out our customer education job board.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2016, and has been updated in 2021.