Let me paint a picture for you with a few short stories. First, we need to jump into a time machine and head for the 20th century!

A five-year-old girl with messy, curly hair is playing with her friends in a courtyard. She has a piece of chalk in her hand and is scribbling rebuses and drawing “activity stations” on the old, cracked asphalt. The other children are laughing, wanting to be involved in her game and to solve the puzzle. Entertaining others makes this little girl happy.

A 10-year-old girl is sent to a boarding school to study music and art, seeing her parents only at weekends. Frustrated, she tries to find the strength to stop the bullying she witnesses in her class—she wants to set up a fair set of rules, while she herself is also being bullied, feeling lonely and friendless. There is no support, and she has to overcome a series of humiliating encounters. Fighting for fairness and human rights within a poorly managed group of children away from parental supervision is the challenge she’s set herself, and there’s no guarantee she’ll succeed.

Next, we see a successful 13-year-old leader of the school, accepted by her peers and recognised as the person every student can trust. This is a girl who can always be counted on to make decisions on behalf of her class. She helps her classmates solve problems — they even start to call her a “psychologist”.

At our next stop, we meet a young woman of 18 who is studying clinical psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalytical psychology. She is the first student in her city to speak about the rights of sex workers at a conference for youth scientists and receives an award for her speech. Her thesis is on the subconscious motivations of women working in the sex industry. This young psychotherapist is trying to understand women’s inner insecurities and what drives them to take up sex work. She takes her research further with a PhD project that aims to help and support these women.

At the age of 25, the young psychotherapist is working with delinquent adolescents and visiting youth jails in Germany in pursuit of new approaches to working with young offenders. She is seeing great outcomes from her group facilitation and is increasingly working as a group facilitator. This pathway is bringing her into the business world, and she begins acting as a facilitator and business trainer.

In 2007, the passionate training consultant is founding a non-profit organisation—a club for business trainers, assessors and facilitators that aims to create a platform for support, self-development and networking for training and development professionals.

In 2017, the International Club of Business Trainers (ICBT) is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Club’s members have come up with countless ideas and solutions over the years, giving the founder the idea of publishing a book. This book, containing the most valuable thoughts and insights of the ICBT members is titled “Backstage of business training or 1001 tips from T&D experts”.

The 5 years old girl is now a 27 years old successful business trainer creating and conducting educational events in Russia, Estonia, Germany and other countries.

In 2008 she moved to Australia and now works as an educational consultant, coach, group facilitator and vocational trainer supporting entrepreneurs, business owners, managers and executives in their successful transformation!

After 20 years in consulting and teaching at TAFE NSW, she’s helped many individuals and business owners to grow professionally and financially and assisted 200+ trainers and assessors worldwide to become successful trainers, assessors and facilitators.