diff --git a/train.py b/train.py
index 69cea633b..3f37a61b0 100644
--- a/train.py
+++ b/train.py
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ def build_optimizer(model, job_config: JobConfig):
 
 def build_grad_scaler(model):
     # apply gradient scaling if mixed precision training is enabled with fp16 param dtype
-    if model.mixed_precision.param_dtype == torch.float16:
+    # NOTE: currently mixed precision training is supported only when FSDP is used
+    if isinstance(model, FSDP) and model.mixed_precision.param_dtype == torch.float16:
         enable_grad_scaling = True
         logger.info("Enabling gradient scaling for mixed precision training")
     else:
@@ -160,13 +161,12 @@ def main(job_config: JobConfig):
         model, world_mesh, parallel_dims, job_config
     )
 
-    # to use FSDP-customized gradient scaler and gradient clipping solutions
-    assert isinstance(model, FSDP)
-
     # build optimizer after applying parallelisms to the model
     optimizer = build_optimizer(model, job_config)
     scheduler = get_lr_scheduler(optimizer, job_config)
 
+    # build grad scaler which is effective only when mixed precision training
+    # is enabled with fp16 param dtype under FSDP
     scaler = build_grad_scaler(model)
 
     metric_logger = build_metric_logger(job_config)
@@ -240,7 +240,12 @@ def main(job_config: JobConfig):
 
             # clip gradients (after unscaling gradients of the optimizer's params)
             scaler.unscale_(optimizer)
-            model.clip_grad_norm_(job_config.training.max_norm)
+            if isinstance(model, FSDP):
+                model.clip_grad_norm_(job_config.training.max_norm)
+            else:
+                torch.nn.utils.clip_grad_norm_(
+                    model.parameters(), job_config.training.max_norm
+                )
 
             # optimizer step
             # If gradients don't contain infs/NaNs, optimizer.step() is then called;