How to Run a Successful Lunch and Learn Event for Continuing Education Units

Lunch and Learn events for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are a great way to offer engineering training in an informal setting. Through these lunchtime training programs engineers can enhance their professional skills base, build their professional development hours (PDH), learn about cutting edge innovations in their field, improve the quality of their work, and fulfill the CEU requirements necessary to renew their professional engineering licenses. The events can also boost morale, provide networking opportunities, improve team work and facilitate efficient time management. However, the way in which these events are planned, executed and followed up is crucial. If done correctly, a Lunch and Learn event can maximize attendance and facilitate skills transfer. This article discusses the key elements required to run a successful Lunch and Learn.

1. Before the Lunch and Learn

Comprehensively Train Technical Staff

Properly trained technical staff are essential to a successful Lunch and Learn. It is natural for the staff contingent to have a diverse skills base, and one broad based training method will rarely work for all individuals. Luckily, several methods are available, and identifying, selecting and implementing which one works best with specific staff is important. These targeted training methods can improve the quantity and quality of work that technical staff deliver at a Lunch and Learn. Once properly trained, staff can plan and deliver outstanding events.

Establish Organized, Defined and Structured Learning Objectives

Effective Lunch and Learns for CEUs must have clearly defined learning objectives. The attendees need to know exactly what they will learn during the event, what the targeted CEU will deliver, how it will benefit their continuing professional competency (CPC) and trust that it will be presented in a concise, logical manner. A well designed and organized event structure will allow attendees to focus on the pertinent key concepts and skills.

Learn how to integrate your training event with CEU credits in this article.

Choose the Appropriate Teaching Method

Traditional training methods for continuing education, such as classroom-based training programs, interactive training and on-the-job training is appropriate for some Lunch and Learn events. In other cases, new technical skills can be integrated faster and easier with the more modern techniques of online training and social learning. It is therefore important to meet the immediate need