About
Karen Belyan, MA, creator and founder of Essential Training Workshops has a background in education and as a consultant and corporate trainer for the past 15 years. Karen consults, designs, develops, and delivers training programs and processes to meet the needs of individuals and client organizations.
Music was the interest of Karen in her early years. Piano was the instrument of choice, and she studied music for several years. In the sixth grade, Karen found her music classes to be boring and dull. She said that when she grew up she was going to become a music teacher, and she was going to make music fun for her students. After graduation from high school, Karen entered college as a music major, and graduated with a BA in music education.
Teaching high school chorus, music appreciation, and creating an all girl song and dance ensemble, Karen the opportunity to fulfill her desire in making music fun for her students. Karen transferred to junior high school students, where she co-directed Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun.” Over the years, Karen taught music in grades one through twelve, but will admit that the junior high school students were her favorites. One minute those students wanted to be all grown up, the next minute they wanted to be kids, and would stumble over their own feet (so to speak.)
The love of teaching and recognizing the opportunity to influence the lives of people became a passion with Karen. Her students soon learned that she was a person who would listen, not judge, but counsel from her own experiences, and they sought her out in many different situations. She became an advocate for those who wanted to learn and supported her students in their journey to achieve their vision of success. Karen found that life style to “fit” with her personal values and philosophy.
A Fork in the Road
Karen had the opportunity to live and work in a foreign country. She began teaching in the Department of Defense schools, and continued teaching in an English speaking, International School. While living in the foreign country, Karen had the opportunity to join two other women in growing an international import business. The women were all volunteers, and the money raised in the shop was distributed to charities. The business grew, and the current managers asked Karen if she could teach others to help run the business. That was Karen’s first opportunity at designing and presenting a training program for adults. It was fun! Karen always loved her work with children and teenagers, but she recognized her desire now to work with adults. This desire led to additional education to learn adult learning principles. Her passion for working with adults led to an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from Michigan State University. Karen recognized she wanted to work with adults in a corporate environment.
Professionalism, Expertise and Experience
Another move, and Karen found that Georgetown University had a graduate certificate program for a Training Specialist. How wonderful! Now the opportunity presented itself for specialization and a year of study just in the training environment. Karen signed up!
After that learning experience, Karen began training personal growth programs for the automotive industry in several different states. She hired, trained and supervised a staff of seven instructors to maintain quality instruction of all implemented programs.
Karen began her first company in 1991 and began to consult with organizations to determine training needs. After the needs analysis process, she designed and facilitated programs to meet the needs of client organizations. Her programs are founded on adult learning principles and styles, they are highly interactive and results oriented. Participants in her sessions range from production line workers, to supervisors, to senior level managers. Karen has earned a reputation for being an enthusiastic and dynamic presenter and facilitator.
The Center for Business, Industry and Labor, hired Karen to work for them in implementing a team building program for the aerospace industry. In this position, Karen facilitated team member training classes, supervised team meetings and interacted with management for improved team development.
Karen is also a senior associate/alliance partner with MMHA, The Managers’ Mentors, Inc. She conducted Readiness Assessments, co-facilitated a three day International Mentoring Coordinator Development Institute, co-designed and implemented mentoring processes for client organizations. She also participated in team projects initiated by MMHA. Karen worked as a lead team member with IBM, Shell Oil, Royal Bank of Canada and others.
Stress Management, Goal Directed Living, the Mentoring Process, Interpersonal Communication, Team Building and Human Behavioral Styles are a sample of Karen’s areas of expertise. She is a qualified user of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a distributor of Inscape Publishing, trained in DiSC®, and a Certified Program Facilitator from Leadership Management Inc.
Other programs Karen has designed and implemented for organizations include, “Mentoring Your Way To Success,” “How To Give A Workshop,” Career Planning and Development, Train-the-Trainer, Effective Time Management, “Smart People are People Smart,” and more.
Karen has also been involved in professional organizations. She has been on a local Board of Directors for the American Society for Training and Development, and a member of the International Society for Performance Improvement.
DiSC® is a registered trademark of Inscape Publishing.
*The Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorÒ, MBTI, the MBTI logo, and Introduction to Type are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust in the United States and other countries.
