Training Versus Education Part 3
Training versus Education - Part 3
So we’ve come to the realization that,
fundamentally, there is no difference between education and training, but in
reality we can use those words to describe the two integral parts of any
learning program, education to describe the self-reflective, knowledge based
component and training, the application oriented and process improvement
component. To build, design, or lead an effective program of learning in any
setting, it thus becomes important to understand the difference between the two
and to learn how to put together an effective approach that blends the two
together as seamlessly as possible.
When should training occur and when
does education take precedent. Those two questions should play a critical part
in the design and development of any training program. Unfortunately, they
either don’t or the demands/constraints of a particular culture limit the
extent to which those questions help shape the learning. Above all, in
preparation for becoming a learning designer – a teacher, a instructional
designer, etc. the opportunity to master instructional strategies and
curriculum design too often occupies only a small percent of the overall time
spent in the program or occurs in too much of a theoretical context. I’m a big
fan of developing (or finding) and then using tools – checklists, outlines,
workflows, diagrams, et al, to help in the design and development process. So,
when we talk about training versus education, it’s a sure fire bet that if you
know which one is applicable in a given situation, you’ve won have the battle.
With that in mind, it would be helpful to go back and quickly define both again
and then talk about the “needs” that drive each condition.
Training.
The word will probably conjure up a boatload of images for you. Throughout this
examination, I have been using the image of a woodshop class as a way to speak
about training. I will admit up front that it may be outdated and that by using
the image I’m helping to perpetuate a boatload of stereotypes or outdated
conceptions of training. I agree. Yet, I wholeheartedly believe that if you
don’t understand the past, you’re doomed to repeat it. So, I’ll stick with the
perhaps less than desirable image to make a point. I never went to woodshop in
school, so I apologize if the analogy or understanding I possess proves
inaccurate or misleading. But, I’m a firm advocate for “hands-on” training as
part of any learning program. I just literally finished reading an article
today from the Founder and CO-CEO of Panera Bread. In it he remarked how
sitting behind a desk all day can prove fatal. I agree. Software developers use
user-acceptance testing to not only improve upon their design but to validate
it. They make assumptions about how humans will interact with a particular
screen or function so without UAT, many a program or device would get unleashed
and find itself underused or its sales below expectations if the design did not
factor in the human aspect of software design. The same thing applies to
learning. Training as a component of learning allows the actual learners to
apply the knowledge they’ve gained in “real-world” settings – even if it’s only
in a lab, and adjust that knowledge based on the experience. It gives learners
the ability to practice individual skills until mastery occurs, or to increase
their mastery by combining skills in a complex environment. As a teenager, I
was drawn into the debate team because as a shy and somewhat over-protected
young man I could apply the knowledge I gained by reading history, current
affairs, etc. while practicing skills through the whole cycle regarding research, writing, etc. Of course,
I learned the hard way that many other teenagers won’t as serious as me about
the whole endeavor. Likewise, I would imagine, again apologies if a bit off
here, that a woodshop class would be similar in the sense that you learn the
basics of carpentry and other crafts, and then apply them in the real world. As
you progress through the course, you work on ever increasing complex projects,
learning how various trades or particular skills come together. Of course, if
you are talking about a high school course I’m sure just as I learned in debate
– not everyone will take it seriously.
Of course, when you talk about learning
in an adult setting – it’s important to remember that there will be folks who,
for whatever reason, won’t take the program seriously or maybe involved in the
design process somehow who don’t understanding learning. Those to points
shouldn’t impact the design or execution of the training program. What people
need will eventually win out and help validate a well designed program. So, in
the case of training, what needs should drive the design of a learning program
to focus on training over education and when?
Of
course, “training” and “education” should go hand in a hand for beginners. If
you are building a learning program for entry level sales team members, if you
are building a learning program on the college level for nurses or teachers, if
you are building a professional development program for first time managers,
the two components should overlap with learners constantly migrating from one
arena to the other. If, on the other hand, you are building executive level
leadership programs, certification courses for already active professionals, or
refresher courses or new “skill” courses for experienced workers, the design
may include a little more time spent in one particular area before moving on to
the other.
In
the first instance, designing for beginners, training should occur in
conjunction with education. A sales rep shouldn’t sit through three or four
weeks of classes that include few activities and no chance to practice their
pitch. Newly minted manager shouldn’t go more than a week – let alone a month,
without being able to bring up obstacles they’ve faced or challenging
situations to which they can talk and debrief and their induction/introduction
program should include plenty of role-playing or scenario building or
self-paced e-learning that present complex, almost unsolvable situations.
In the second instance, when dealing with
experienced/seasoned people – training should not get overlooked or mitigated
in a program depending on the circumstances. For example, if you were building
an executive development program for newly hired vice-presidents for a
pharmaceutical company in which you identified a large number of folks are, or
will be, transferring from a hospital background, then the “educational”
component better include information on the pharma business. From a “training” perspective,
it may prove helpful to put the new recruits through some practical experiences
– sales calls, sales meetings, research meetings, quarterly reviews, etc –
depending on their job function. Or, imagine a merchandising leader coming from
a full fledged department store company to an off-price retail one. They’re
onboarding should include lots of practical hands on experience in the store,
conversations and training around the company’s accounting, finance, purchase
order cycles, and time spent in the market place and doing competitive shopping
with the teams they’re leading. Or, think of a group of software programmers.
If your looking to migrate a whole bunch of programmers over to a new system
they’ve never worked on before or using a language they haven’t touched in
years, then some training on the system and some basic refreshers about
syntaxes, rules, and other key distinctions about the program should find its
way into the program.
Education,
yes, there’s a definite outdated image on this screen. And by outdated, I don’t
mean the age of the picture – just the fact that I purposely chose a scene from
a lecture hall again as I did early in our discussion. Just as with training,
the word “education” conjures up a ton of images and memories for each
individual. And, plenty of opinions. I follow a lot of training and education
groups on LinkedIn. They’re a great way for me to either pose questions, keep
up to date on topics or issues, and generally learn from my peers. Just the
other day I got involved in a discussion in which the poster asked “are we
asking the right questions about education?”. Summarizing everything I read and
said, it seemed that there was a consensus as to the need to transform our
current educational system but a lot of differing opinions as to what to focus
on or, when people agreed as to the focus, how to go about achieving it. Having
worked in both the k-12 and now corporate arena I’ve learned from both others
and from my own experience that the education I was giving and the education I
received did not prepare me as well as I would like for the realities of
today’s work environment. I made a few comments from a corporate/business
perspective about the need for purposefulness in learning programs and how from
a business perspective, there is a solid line between training and education.
Not right or wrong, and certainly not ignorant of the need for a well-rounded
education, I would still argue that if the educational system does not try to
interface and work in partnership with the business world, neither will profit
and become innovative. In terms of “education”, again we want to use that word
to define the opportunities and activities that impart knowledge (or content)
to a learner, allow for self-reflection or discussion, and improve the choices
made or the thoughts acted upon. From that perspective, it’s clear that just as
“training” seems more appropriate in certain cases, so to does “education”.
For
example, let’s go back to the scenarios I threw out on the previous slide.
Let’s start with the woodshop analogy, again apologies upfront. If you imagine
a woodshop class, either for high school or perhaps at a community college for
adults interested in the craft, each time you learn a new tool or start
learning about a new skill set or particular craft, there should be plenty of
knowledge and guidance. For our newly minted sales reps, lots of debriefing
time, even after they begin their jobs, and the ability to discuss and share
ideas would prove critically important, as would inclusion of accurate and
purposeful information about the products they’re selling, the company, the
competition. For the newly minted managers plenty of information should be
shared about employment law, the company’s policies, the company’s talent
management and/or performance review process, again coupled with chances for
managers to discuss their fears, their failures, their successes in an open and
trusting environment. Leaders hired from a different industry or market
segment, or from a different business model definitely benefit from
conversations and information about their new found home.
So,
what does all of that mean for the choices we make as we design learning? It
means that the driving force behind any program must come from a combination of
the needs of the business as well as the needs of the learner. Needs. That’s
the only word that accurately summarizes how to go about the design and
development of a purposeful learning program. I’ve been recently trying to
teach myself HTML. It’s been an okay process and I have access to a great
online library of learning videos. But, the videos really don’t tell you how to
practice your skills. And, I’ve realized just in the past two or three days
while taking a break, that I’ve probably started to far into the pool. I just
located a bunch of videos on the basics of computer programming and coding. I
should probably start there. Not that I couldn’t learn HTML by using the video,
but again I am going without a road map here and I just realized that
eventually the car I’m in won’t make it up the hills coming up so I better go
back to the beginning and start over.
That’s a incredible moment of learning. And, it’s based on my real
needs. I can watch those videos again, create the examples again on my own as I
was doing to reinforce the learning, but I need more of a foundation to help
broaden my understanding and make the future learning process easier and since
I’m looking to take everything I’ve learned back into my new job (still
looking) I would like to ensure I’m doing it right.
One of the hardest things to overcome
when designing learning is common sense. Leaving aside all the usual jokes,
people make too many assumptions about what a person can or should be able to
do. I believe that good learning is done side-by-side and that successful
organizations in any field have leaders working and learning side by side with
everyone else. So, what do we do? If you are responsible for helping create a
learning program, you need to keep in mind that the whole point of this
discussion was to help us, myself included, understand the dynamics of good
learning. It’s not apples or oranges. It’s both. The question is the timing,
the length, the particular activities, the strategies used, the buy-in and
support you can gain. People always talk about “paradigm shifts”. Having been a
political science major in college, I heard that phrase more times that you can
imagine. People generally use the term correctly albeit their analysis coming
either too later or without actionable items. If we’re talking about a paradigm
shift here it’s not about shifting what’s done in a classroom or corporate
training center as much as it is in shifting the attitudes or deepening the
understanding of how learning occurs to all those involved in it’s creation and
execution. A person lives through a healthy diet that includes items from all
of the basic food groups. I think that’s the most accurate analogy we can use
when we talk about a program of learning – to really achieve understanding and
long-term success, learners must build their knowledge and skills from a
variety of sources using a variety of techniques. Know that we have a good
analogy to use let’s go ahead and answer our final question – when is it important
to know the difference between the two.
From
a personal perspective it is very important to know the difference between
education and training. Recently my fiancee, a small business owner, has had me read
a few books on personal finance and other financial literacy topics. One of
them, Rich Dad Poor Dad, a very popular book, had a line where the self-made
millionaire author Richard Kiyosaki told a story about an interview with a
journalist from a country in east Asia . She was respected in her field and
could write very well. However, she felt that her career would not take off any
further and she had struggled to get published. He had read some of her
material already and between that and the way she went about the interview, he
thought she possessed great promise. He suggested perhaps trying a sales course
where she could improve her pitch and her presentation skills. She balked. She
went to school to avoid becoming a salesperson. It was, to her mind, beneath
her. Well, he still pushed and had her read the cover of his book after
bemoaning how it wasn’t fair that someone who had studied writing could not
gain sales whereas some unkempt schmuck could. He made her read the part about
him being a “best-selling author” not a “best-writing author”. She apparently
had enough at that point. I mention this story because when it comes to
education versus training folks looking for career advancement, a career
change, or just more satisfaction in their life tend to lean to one side over
the other. So, if you’re looking to get ahead with your own life and career,
keep the following points in mind.
Know thyself! Yes, I know, it’s a very
overused and, well quite frankly, often misused line. But, many highly
successful people (or happy if you prefer) will tell you that the advice is
true. Many would argue too that the process is just that – a process that never
ends and continues throughout life. However, there are points in our lives or
areas therein where certain milestones become visible. What do I mean? If you
find yourself wanting a career advance into upper management, it may not mean
automatically jumping into a managerial role. Your career or skill set may need
to include skills or knowledge from another line of the business or another
department. Yes, you can’t always predict that a side step will lead to an
eventual step up, but it wouldn’t hurt would it? Or, perhaps you managed to get
into a leadership role already but struggle with the complexity or demands of
the position. You may be a terrific leader and a good boss, but perhaps you
need more fundamental training on a few topics or processes that you now
oversee. Maybe you didn’t go to college but managed to work your way into a
field and have found success but think that the lack of a degree is holding you
back. Maybe at this point a four year diploma from a very prestigious
institution would be ridiculous from a cost perspective. There’s always online
courses or community colleges.
In any of the above examples, I can’t
tell you the right choice. Your boss can’t tell you it either. Only you know
what you need because only you know what you truly want. Having worked in
education then spent some time in the property management industry as well as
in a large corporate setting there were plenty of folks I meant who were either
contemplating going back to school or their children were at a crossroads in
their own studies/lives. Very often people, if they knew my background, would
ask what I thought about online schools. My answer was simple – know thyself.
You can learn in any setting, but only you know how you work, what your
weaknesses are, and what you want and therefore need to get there. Online
schools are great for professional studies. Got your accounting or finance
degree already and have a job in the field? Great! Then an online master’s may
work great for you. Thinking about becoming a high school or elementary school
teacher. Well, I won’t speak badly because I don’t know exactly for sure, but
traditional schools have spent years formulating relationships with schools and
school districts thus giving you more options for your student teaching and
much more credibility after graduation. Already have a nursing degree but want
to become a nursing instructor or professor – perhaps a blended approach – one
where you meet weekly but most content and studies are self-paced might be a
better fit – it’s hard to learn how to teach people without lots of
interaction. I say all of this to note the complexity of the choices we have to
make but it’s not all a downer. If you see live or can learn to see live as an
adventure and take the time to learn from everyone and anything, even when you
make a mistake, you’ll be the much better for it. I think I noted earlier in
our discussion how I started a second masters program in instructional
technology. I had been a high school teacher for six years and had managed to
migrate over to the corporate world. I
had a masters in education already but I knew I wanted and needed more in the
way of experience with skills such as needs analysis, evaluation, and
technology. The program I enrolled in was great for someone without any sort of
tech background or teaching experience or for someone who definitely was
interested in the k-12 or perhaps higher-ed arena. For someone like me, it was
terrible. I’m a hands on learner and I don’t need any more education theory.
So, I stopped the program after 3 courses and am in need of mapping out my own
course and how to go about getting there. If you know yourself as well as you
know anything else, you achieved a lot already.
Do you need more education or more
training. Getting and education isn’t
cheap but it’s easy. Even if you’re not yet cut out for admission to or the
workload of a full-boat university, community college is a great option.
Getting trained is cheap, but it’s relatively more difficult. You either need a
supportive and understanding boss or have professional organizations in your
area that offer not just advice or guidance, but practical skills and
application too. Again, community colleges or professional workshops are great
for this kind of stuff.
Know thyself! Yes, I know, it’s a very
overused and, well quite frankly, often misused line. But, many highly
successful people (or happy if you prefer) will tell you that the advice is
true. Many would argue too that the process is just that – a process that never
ends and continues throughout life. However, there are points in our lives or
areas therein where certain milestones become visible. What do I mean? If you
find yourself wanting a career advance into upper management, it may not mean
automatically jumping into a managerial role. Your career or skill set may need
to include skills or knowledge from another line of the business or another
department. Yes, you can’t always predict that a side step will lead to an
eventual step up, but it wouldn’t hurt would it? Or, perhaps you managed to get
into a leadership role already but struggle with the complexity or demands of
the position. You may be a terrific leader and a good boss, but perhaps you
need more fundamental training on a few topics or processes that you now
oversee. Maybe you didn’t go to college but managed to work your way into a
field and have found success but think that the lack of a degree is holding you
back. Maybe at this point a four year diploma from a very prestigious
institution would be ridiculous from a cost perspective. There’s always online
courses or community colleges.
In any of the above examples, I can’t
tell you the right choice. Your boss can’t tell you it either. Only you know
what you need because only you know what you truly want. Having worked in
education then spent some time in the property management industry as well as
in a large corporate setting there were plenty of folks I meant who were either
contemplating going back to school or their children were at a crossroads in
their own studies/lives. Very often people, if they knew my background, would
ask what I thought about online schools. My answer was simple – know thyself.
You can learn in any setting, but only you know how you work, what your
weaknesses are, and what you want and therefore need to get there. Online
schools are great for professional studies. Got your accounting or finance
degree already and have a job in the field? Great! Then an online master’s may
work great for you. Thinking about becoming a high school or elementary school
teacher. Well, I won’t speak badly because I don’t know exactly for sure, but
traditional schools have spent years formulating relationships with schools and
school districts thus giving you more options for your student teaching and
much more credibility after graduation. Already have a nursing degree but want
to become a nursing instructor or professor – perhaps a blended approach – one
where you meet weekly but most content and studies are self-paced might be a
better fit – it’s hard to learn how to teach people without lots of
interaction. I say all of this to note the complexity of the choices we have to
make but it’s not all a downer. If you see live or can learn to see live as an
adventure and take the time to learn from everyone and anything, even when you
make a mistake, you’ll be the much better for it. I think I noted earlier in
our discussion how I started a second masters program in instructional
technology. I had been a high school teacher for six years and had managed to
migrate over to the corporate world. I
had a masters in education already but I knew I wanted and needed more in the
way of experience with skills such as needs analysis, evaluation, and
technology. The program I enrolled in was great for someone without any sort of
tech background or teaching experience or for someone who definitely was
interested in the k-12 or perhaps higher-ed arena. For someone like me, it was
terrible. I’m a hands on learner and I don’t need any more education theory.
So, I stopped the program after 3 courses and am in need of mapping out my own
course and how to go about getting there. If you know yourself as well as you
know anything else, you achieved a lot already.
Do you need more education or more
training. Getting and education isn’t
cheap but it’s easy. Even if you’re not yet cut out for admission to or the
workload of a full-boat university, community college is a great option.
Getting trained is cheap, but it’s relatively more difficult. You either need a
supportive and understanding boss or have professional organizations in your
area that offer not just advice or guidance, but practical skills and
application too. Again, community colleges or professional workshops are great
for this kind of stuff.
When
it comes to deciding on educational and training opportunities for yourself we
noted on the last two sections that’s it’s about knowing yourself and knowing
thy job market (or industry). As I right this, I literally just got an
automated rejection email from a company I applied too. What makes it funny,
and a bit frustrating and disappointing, is that the recruiter who contacted me
about the position I applied for noted that what I did apply for may be a bit
below my skill level and experience but directed me to apply for another
position, to which I just got the rejection email. I’m going to email the
person back and ask exactly what I can do and exactly what made the job
description so misleading in the first place. I mention this because when we
talk about personal choices and personal obstacles what we really are talking
about is bridging the gap, to use learning terminology, between the knowledge
and skills you currently possess and the what a particular job or field demands
you possess. Yes, you say, that’s easier said then done. Often, those skills
and knowledge matter only as much as the connections you have or the positions
you’ve held. Sometimes, the knowledge and skills you need can’t be gained while
still holding down your job, running your family, etc. Sometimes, it’s a
chicken and egg scenario. You kind of possess the ability and skills but
employers won’t give you the opportunity to which you reply, well how will I
get those even more if someone, like you, doesn’t give me the chance? There are
lots of tough choices to make in life. Sometimes though, persistence and luck
will give you just enough to fake it until you make it.
The other thing of note worth
mentioning here is that you will never be good enough or know enough. Someone
else, perhaps at the sacrifice of their personal lives, perhaps at the
sacrifice of their family, will come along and know more about everything.
That’s fine. It will happen. Even if they really don’t know it all, they’re too
impressive to be ignored by others. So be it. If you fill in the gaps enough
sometimes the rest come automatically. That’s the power behind knowing yourself
and knowing your industry (or your goals). If you do your due diligence and
work hard enough at completing your bridge, sometimes the gap will narrow or
others will help you finish your work.
From
a professional viewpoint, the difference between education and training is much
clearer. Education is wide and training is narrow. So to speak. Whether you are
involved in the design or delivery of learning programs or are searching or
participating in them as a student, it’s imperative to know the difference not
just for you own personal growth, but also for the business’. There’s little in
the way of romance when it comes to training. It can be very targeted, very
isolated, very useful. It’s important to learn specific skill sets and to
perform certain tasks with reliability and/or efficiency. Education can be very
broad, very encompassing, and very impractical. However, it’s critical to
success, even if only in the sense of learning how to do a “job”, for it gives
you a much better understanding of the reasoning behind the tasks or processes.
Whether you designing learning for others or trying to understand what you need
as an individual, from a professional standpoint there’s a few things to consider.
One
of the most often used paradigms to describe training versus education is the
phrase “theory versus application”. Of course, we’ve already debunked that in
the sense that optimal performance in any capacity requires both. I’d soon
perform surgery on myself as trust a surgeon whose only read books on surgery
before. Seriously though, if people question theory versus application there’s
probably something else going on. The key to remember in any choice you make –
the objectives you’re seeking to fulfill. Designing a revamped medical school
curriculum for surgeons – better include time in the operating room next to
experienced professionals. Trying to improve customer service skills amongst
call center workers, try the same approach or maybe a mini workshop using real
examples. Looking to develop a core curriculum for a bunch of new trainers for
a startup tech or bio company? A lot of learning theory may help. In the end,
the needs of the learners – when compared to the goals of the program, should dictate
the right blend of the two and the right strategies to use for each.
The
biggest problem with most training today and most people’s attitudes about
training? Speed. That’s a no brainer for anybody involved. Chunking learning is
critical to success for the learner, and ultimately the business, but the speed
it takes to develop and then deliver effective training is time consuming. But, the work does pay off. It’s important to
sequence and time learning correctly. Again, learning can happen and will
happen on its on. Plenty of writers and thinkers are playing in the field of
“informal” learning. However important informal learning is to job performance
and company health, it’s also counter to the way most people gain employment
and how we interview candidates for the most part. So, as you design you
learning or mind your own studies, learning how to chunk it – and learning how
it should have been chunked (i.e. learning from mistakes or self-reflection)
helps. Just as a great piece of literature includes various components of
grammar – words, sentences, paragraphs, so too should a learning program
contain bits and pieces from different areas. When it comes to the question of
education versus training, the demands of the business (objectives) dictate the
design and the design dictates the sequencing and defines the appropriate
timing and size of the learning.
I
mentioned earlier the field of software design and a major component of the
release of any new software program or tech gadget includes usability testing.
There’s a whole field of literature on it and experts who make careers out of
it. It’s a major component of any software’s design and final “look and feel”.
The same thing should go for learning. Any teacher who doesn’t sincerely ask
for and incorporate feedback from students will never mature as a teacher. Any
program or company that doesn’t do the same runs the same risk. But, the issue
for companies is getting beyond what Kirkpatrick calls levels 1 and 2 to more
substantial and useful information found on levels 3 and 4. In reality, getting
that kind of data is costly and time consuming. However, as technologies
improve and companies continue to wage the war on talent, those that recognize
their ability to grow their own talent from within probably continue to find
cheaper, quicker ways to gather that data. Of course, that data is pointless if
it doesn’t lead to modifications and a reassessment of a learning program. When
we talk about education versus training, don’t assume that usability doesn’t
play a factor either. You may have the right blend of both or may be
appropriately targeting one field over the other in a particular course or
initiative. The problem may lie in the structure, the sequence, the timing, or
the attitude of learners. While we want to move beyond levels 1 and 2, they are
helpful when dealing with cultures where a particular delivery style is kind or
perhaps in a culture where the learning isn’t taken seriously or the previous
attempts have failed. So, to that point, usability doesn’t just always mean the
big things – it can mean the small things and it can mean that non-learning
factors need to be addressed. I met with a potential employer yesterday. The
company is in the financial industry and the particular department works on the
mortgage front. In speaking with the hiring manger they asked a question about
how I approach a SME who would ask for “customer service” training. Step one –
define the user population. Step two – define the objectives, step three –
determine where the population is out now compared to the desired goal. As many
seasoned and passionate learning professionals will tell you, many requests for
training don’t need a training solution. At least not a solution in the sense
of a course or class or e-learning module. It may simply require a job-aid. It
may require a re-structuring of a process or improved communication in a
department or on a team. Or, it may require a re-evaluation of job
responsibilities or the re-engineering of a software system or the design of a
new webpage. So, to that matter, usability needs to be a key component of any learning
program’s or tool’s design. And, the approach must include the right support
and application practice for the learners
There’s
plenty more to mention about training and education. Too much for just a few
brief blog entries. However, I’ve hope our discussion has helped either in a
personal way or a professional way.
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