How to raise the bar on training before and during camp
The spelling difference between getting through staff training and getting thorough staff training is just a single, lowercase “o.” The real-world difference could be life or death.
No human can ever learn everything they need to know for their job. Any job. And, in some ways, that’s OK because some of the best learning about how to do a job well happens while doing the job. While we are on the job, we learn from our mentors, our mistakes, and the material we are given, such as handbooks, manuals, online training, and in-person workshops. (People in HR call this package “continuous professional development.”)
Ironically, some of the most important jobs in the world, such as being a parent, require no formal training and come with no salary. In fact, parenting is a job you pay for. (Financial analysts estimate the current cost of raising a child in the U.S. from birth to 18 to be around $300,000 or $16,667 per year![1]) Of course, expectant parents have all been parented themselves, which is a formative training experience. (Even if you’re not expecting children soon, time with your parents has surely helped you identify what you would and wouldn’t replicate, right?)
Many hospitals, midwives, doulas, and non-parent relatives also offer guidance on parenting newborns. But a few weeks after babies are born, formal parenting training evaporates, and parents embark on decades of on-the-job learning, punctuated with the occasional great book or wise counsel from other parents.
Conclusion? Formal education, required experience, and salary tell you precious little about the importance of a job. To assess a job’s importance, you must look at what the job entails. And caring for children, including other people’s children, is the most important job in the world. But if we can’t know everything before we start, and if the job is so important, should anyone take it on? Should anyone even consider being a cabin leader, camp counselor, or parks and rec staff member? Yes! Being a youth leader is both highly impactful and highly rewarding.
Whether you are the owner or director of a summer youth program, a new member of the staff, or somewhere else on the org. chart, the checklists of minimum requirements below will help determine whether you’re on track for success or falling short of the youth-development industry’s best practices. This is where the distinction between getting through staff training and getting thorough staff training comes into sharp focus.
Why Conduct Pre-Arrival Training?
Few youth-serving organizations have adequate on-site training time. For that reason, pre-arrival training—where employers begin training staff online in the months before on-site training begins—has been the best practice for nearly two decades. Perhaps some form of pre-arrival training, such as mailing manuals to staff, has always been a best practice. Yet, as laws, accreditation standards, and parental expectations have grown more stringent, pre-arrival training has become compulsory. Fortunately, online learning platforms are now commonplace, and nearly all staff have or can find a device with internet access, so administering pre-arrival training is easier than ever. (Check out ExpertOnlineTraining.com for a best-in-class example.)
Hesitant? Consider this: Both new and returning staff members say they love arriving for on-site training feeling confident, having shifted their mindset from school-focused/self-focused to kid-focused/other-focused, and having acquired new skills before setting foot on the property. Pre-arrival training also allows owners and directors of parks and recreation departments, day camps, overnight camps, and other youth-serving organizations to notch up their on-site training to a higher level. With many foundational skills in place, on-site training can include advanced behavior-management role-plays, involved discussions about policies, practice of risk-management strategies, and other high-level skills. Failure to participate in or pass pre-arrival training also flags staff members whose dedication to professionalism falls short of camp requirements. Let them go now, rather than become a liability later.
Before presenting a checklist of pre-arrival training, it’s important to address the question of time. Owners and directors often ask me about the best time to ask staff to complete pre-arrival training and how much time they should expect their seasonal staff to devote. The answers are simple: Most people are busy throughout the year, so there’s no “best” time for staff to dive into professional development. If you assign pre-arrival training at least two months before your on-site training begins, everyone on staff will have time to weave it into their schedules.
As for quantity, asking staff members to spend eight hours (i.e., a full day of work in most countries) on pre-arrival assignments is reasonable. A bit more or less is also permissible. However, it is essential that you explain this commitment in interviews and include it in the contracts that seasonal staff sign. It’s only fair that they know about and are compensated for all the work they do as your employees. If you have questions about how to phrase pre-arrival training in a contract, consult an attorney. Each organization has different bylaws, and each is governed by the employment laws in a state, country, province, or territory.
Pre-Arrival Training Checklist
The checklist below is not complete because each organization’s requirements differ, but it is broadly applicable to all youth-serving organizations. Start with this list and consult with your administrative or leadership team to decide how it should be modified to best meet your needs.
- Low Bar: Gather Information
- Conduct a criminal background check for every employee, as extensively as possible. Note that you’ll need to gather personal information from job candidates to perform background checks. You should tell candidates why you are collecting their personal information, how you will protect it, and what you will do with the background data you collect.
- Gather three references who are not family members of the candidate but who know the candidate well in a different setting. Have conversations with each of these three references to garner information about the candidate’s character, work ethic, trainability, and past performance.
- Conduct a face-to-face interview with each candidate. In-person is ideal; virtual is permissible. Even if the background check is clear and references are stellar, you still need a substantive interview to get to know the person, to explain the job in detail, and to discover whether that person is a good fit for your organization. Most organizations also reinterview returning candidates, especially if they are being considered for a promotion.
- High Bar: Teach Skills
- Teach new and returning staff members about your organization’s culture and the broader culture in which it is embedded. Articles, photos, yearbooks, and videoconferences are among the ways you can acculturate your staff, especially international staff. (Remember that no staffing agency can ever communicate your traditions and values as well as you and your senior staff can.)
- Teach new and returning staff the details of their jobs. No incoming staff member wants surprises, so explain performance expectations, how feedback and evaluations are provided, and what the consequences of policy violations are.
- Teach new and returning staff both basic and advanced skills they will need to perform exceptionally and maintain their stamina through closing day. Online learning platforms specifically designed for youth-development professionals (e.g., ExpertOnlineTraining.com) are ideal for this purpose. You can also customize all-purpose platforms (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.) and conduct training workshops designed by you and your team. Just remember to keep them lively and get everyone to participate.
Why Conduct On-Site Training?
So many conference workshops, articles, and books focus on effective on-site training of staff that its importance need not be repeated. What does deserve mention are these five overarching principles of effective on-site training:
1. Review accreditation standards for the type of program(s) you run and ask yourself: What mandatory skills must all staff possess? What specialized skills must certain groups of staff possess to competently perform their specific jobs? The answers to these questions form the backbone of your on-site training curriculum.
2. Analyze your staff’s successes and shortcomings from the previous few seasons and ask yourself: In addition to what we must teach staff, what areas should we emphasize (for the whole staff or for certain groups of staff) to improve their identified weaknesses?
3. Engage your staff with demonstrations, role-plays, and in situ practice. (Lecturing is one of the least effective ways to teach, so minimize or eliminate lectures.) You need each staff member to be confident and high-functioning, beginning on opening day, so no one can be a bystander or simply receive a certification card as a substitute for participating in on-site training. Lifeguards, for example, need to practice in-water rescues in the actual pool, river, lake, or ocean where kids will enjoy aquatic activities. Likewise, all staff need to practice the camp’s emergency action plans (EAPs), not simply look at a flowchart in a manual.
4. Forge connections among all tiers of staff. Teams work better together after they have bonded. Therefore, in addition to giving all staff members appropriate breaks, you can enhance their cooperation and shape the culture of your program by intentionally building bonding games and unstructured free time into on-site training. Group bonding activities, such as large-group games, teamwork contests, and gratitude activities, add interesting variety to the more intense parts of on-site training.
5. Document every staff member’s participation in your on-site training, including name, the skills worked on, and level of competence in performing each skill. For example, it’s not enough to write, “Conducted a workshop on safe touch and safe talk.” Instead, you need to make a spreadsheet that has every staff member’s name in the first column, specific concepts and skills in the next columns, and columns to verify the workshop leader’s assessment that their performance met or exceeded standards.
On-Site Training Checklist
- Low Bar: Full Participation
- All staff members must participate in all required days of staff training. Anyone who misses part of on-site training must make it up when they return and before fully assuming their responsibilities. Abridging training increases risk to participants and incurs liability for your organization.
- All staff must participate in a full range of tasks during on-site training. Their extensive involvement helps you (and them) assess their stamina, creativity, flexibility, and resilience. Unless you put staff through the paces before opening day, you will not be able to identify individuals who are unfit for the job.
- All staff must follow your organization’s rules and policies as soon as they step foot on the property. Ignoring rules and policies—about drinking, curfew, technology, etc.—during on-site training makes those rules and policies harder to follow and enforce after opening day.
- High Bar: Realistic Simulation
- Provide ample time for staff to practice the actual skills they need to run programs, lead participants, manage behavior, perform EAPs, resolve conflicts, supervise other staff, and communicate with parents. As noted above, demonstrations and role-plays (provided every staff member is involved) are well-suited for this purpose.
- Debrief staff members’ successes and shortcomings after each type of simulated scenario practice. Candid debriefs will help the staff learn from their mistakes and get used to absorbing feedback—both praise and criticism.
- Validate all staff members with certifications (e.g., lifeguarding, equestrian, archery, ropes, etc.) to ensure they can competently perform each required skill in your environment, with your equipment, without coaching.
- Endow staff with meaningful responsibilities, beginning with their first hours on-site. Long before young participants arrive at your overnight camp, day camp, parks and rec program, or other youth-serving organization, staff members need to feel how important their initiative, awareness, and contributions are to the entire team’s success.
Fresh ideas undoubtedly popped into your head as you studied the checklists above. Now is the ideal time to write down those ideas and create your own Low Bars and High Bars for both pre-arrival training and on-site training.
Pre-arrival and on-site training will combine with your in-service training to form a steady, three-legged stool of staff competence. Despite the occasional complaint, staff members do want thorough training, not only to get through training. Equipped with excellent preparation and engaged in continuous professional development, both your staff and the organization will be at their best, season after season.
[1] LaPonsie, M. (2024). How much does it cost to raise a child. US News & World Report, May 9. Retrieved February 3, 2025: https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child#:~:text=Using%20the%20Consumer%20Expenditures%20Survey,Clothing:%206%25
