To be effective, trainers ought to determine what motivates the trainees, and might keep them from learning.

Some considerations in terms of motivation are: social relationships, external expectations, social welfare, personal advancement, stimulation, and academic interest.

Some trainees may be motivated by an opportunity to make new friends and to forge new associations.

In an organizational environment, trainees often attend training in order to comply with instructions from someone else. In such cases, training may be mandatory for continued employment.

Often, training is undertaken in order to achieve higher status in a job, secure professional advancement, and stay abreast of competitors.

On a somewhat altruistic plane, people may attend training sessions to improve their ability to serve others or to prepare for service to the community.

Finally, people may seek training simply to break some routine or to learn simply for the sake of learning.

A successful training program depends on motivated trainees. In order to learn, the trainee must attend to the training session.

Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so primarily because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought. Learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

With adults, it is important to keep in mind that they have many responsibilities that must balanced against the demands of learning. These responsibilities may act as barriers to learning.

In general, adult learners tend to be less interested in survey courses. They prefer single concept, single-theory training that focuses on the application of a concept to relevant problems. Being able to apply newly acquired concepts aids retention.

Retention of material learned is important to training. Adults prefer to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are going to keep - and use - the new information. On the other hand, information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true, is integrated more slowly and is less likely to be retained.

The fact that adults come to the training with fairly well developed "value sets" may present the trainer with a barrier. As mentioned above, information that conflicts with views that are held to be true is less likely to be integrated or retained. However, sometimes the very nature of the subject matter requires that long-held beliefs are questioned and even modified. Some instruction must be designed to effect a change in belief and value systems. Trainers must be sensitive to the variety of values being brought to training sessions by adults; programs need to be designed to accept viewpoints from people in different life stages and with different value "sets."

Psychomotor skills present a very prevalent barrier to learning that increases with age. Adults may compensate for being slower in some psychomotor learning tasks by being more accurate and making fewer trial-and-error ventures. While being careful, adults also impede the learning process by taking fewer risks. When designing a training program, fast-paced, physically complex tasks ought to be avoided.

Attention must also be paid to the physical environment in which the training takes place. The learning environment must be physically and psychologically comfortable; long lectures, periods and the absence of practice opportunities should be avoided.

Because self-esteem and ego are frequently on the line when trainees are asked to risk trying a new behavior in front of peers and cohorts, the importance of psychological comfort cannot be underestimated with adult trainees. Whereas most Human Resource Development professionals have had successful academic careers, the same cannot necessarily be said of all employees within the firm. Often trainees come to training programs with trepidation that is rooted in unhappy experiences in schools.