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The president of the Polish Chamber of Training Companies, Piotr Piasecki, says that while some of those in the field have a background in sociology or psychology, an equal number have taken up jobs as trainers after working and gaining professional experience and decided to share that experience, and a similar sized-group will have studied specifically to become trainers.

"Since there is no competence system for trainers in Poland those in the training business usually come from different fields and education backgrounds," said Piasecki.

"Trainers with professional experience are preferred to those who just finished their studies," Piasecki says, adding that a trainer should have certain level of qualifications in order to be able teach adults.

However, he sees professional experience as vital. "The trainer must have enough experience to be able to recognize the course-taker's needs, the problems of the organization and to see the effect of the training. But certainly every trainer should have the so-called soft, interpersonal skills," Piasecki explained.

Anna Kossak, a freelance business trainer, also identifies the importance of those soft skills.

"A good trainer should have some background in psychology. He or she should know the mechanisms behind human behavior and motives, and they should be able to diagnose needs. Training techniques will not be effective if they are not adequately used," she explained.

Iwona Majewska-Opiełka agrees that a background in psychology does help in the training, especially when it comes to convincing people of the need to learn certain techniques or behaviors.

However, she points out that among the best trainers in the business many are not psychologists. "What's more, many psychologists in the training business treat the people they are training like patients and not like clients," Majewska-Opiełka explained.

Training courses usually take between one and three days, most often outside of the company during special outings. But trainers usually visit the organization before the training itself. "It is important to talk to the people, to become acquainted with the relations between people in the company" Kossak said.

Such visits may lead to surprising conclusions. "It often turns out that the contracted training is inadequate to the company's real training needs," adds Kossak, who counts WIG20 companies and one of the country's largest publishing houses among her clients. She specializes in training for self-presentation, communication and public appearances.

Majewska-Opiełka, who is the author of numerous books on the subject and has provided training for companies such as Tchibo, Citibank Handlowy and mobile phone operators, to name a few, doesn't concentrate on teaching specific techniques, management or communicating skills, but rather on building the character and corporate culture, or identity of the company. "I help people develop their individual character, so they become better and more effective," she explains.

"My courses also deal with the people's private life - because you cannot separate it from the professional one. Problems in one sphere of the life have effects on the other," she continued.

Courses conducted by her also last for one or two days, however, she also carries out periodic training sessions. "Such courses usually consists of seven or eight monthly meetings and course-takers are given homework and they are being regularly evaluated," Majewska-Opiełka said.

In other cases evaluation can be done by a conversation with a boss or by individual methods, such as asking the students to write letters. Kossak also sees the importance of evaluation, frequently asking to meet the group a month or so after the training.

But they all point out that training session, lasting for day or two, will not change human habits and skills immediately.

"My sessions are more like a sign-post. I only tell those attending the course what to do to become better and it's up to them if they decide to follow these guidelines," Majewska-Opiełka summed up. And students best head the advice on offer because it isn't cheap, as Piasecki points out: "On average commercial training costs between zł.2,000 and zł.6,000 per training day," adding that high-end courses can cost up to zł.15,000.