While acknowledging the importance of training, the challenge lies in understanding and optimizing its effectiveness, especially in the context of the government institution’s ever-changing landscape and the associated budgetary considerations. It examines whether pre-training factors—organizational support, training environment, trainer quality, and training need analysis— influence training effectiveness directly or are mediated by motivation to learn, motivation to transfer, and self-efficacy in non-ministerial government institutions in Indonesia. Data were collected from 202 respondents across 19 institutions using purposive sampling and analyzed with Covariance Based-Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) using Lisrel 8.80. The findings reveal that trainer quality significantly affects motivation to learn, motivation to transfer, and self-efficacy but does not directly impact training effectiveness. Instead, its influence is mediated by motivation to transfer and self-efficacy. This underscores the crucial role of trainers in enhancing training effectiveness by boosting participants' motivation and self-efficacy. The study highlights the need for organizations to invest in high-quality trainers through ongoing professional development, robust evaluation systems, and incentives to improve training outcomes and achieve organizational goals more efficiently.