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Why run training courses?

By Peter Honey (October 2004 Issue)
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I keep coming across books and reports that question the assumption that courses are necessarily the best way to meet an identified training need. Consider, for example, the following two quotations.

Much training and education is wasted effort and the knee-jerk reaction to learning needs of ‘put on a training course’ is often misguided.1

If this report does have a position on training, it is simply to suggest that training is reserved for situations that justify a more directed, expert-led approach, rather than viewing it as a comprehensive people-development solution.2

Doubts about the wisdom of assuming that a course is The Answer aren’t particularly new. In A Declaration on Learning, written with a dozen other colleagues (you can download it free from my website), there are also passages that seek to cut courses down to size.

Learning is frequently associated with formal teaching and training which, too often, comes to be seen as irrelevant to daily life and work. Most learning takes place outside controlled classroom environments and this needs to be recognised – especially by educators and governments.

Significant, too, was the definition of lifelong learning offered towards the end of the declaration: ‘A learning approach to all life and work experience, using formal education and training as a last resort.’ The last four words say it all.

Yet, despite the fact that formal training courses receive many maulings, on they limp, like indestructible, wounded bears. I am frequently approached by organisations that say ‘We need a course’ when, on deeper analysis, it transpires another approach (usually some form of work-based learning) would better meet the need.

I have always had an intense love–hate relationship with training courses, having spent a significant percentage of my life (I don’t want to know the actual percentage!) designing and delivering structured training courses of various shapes and sizes. On the one hand, I get a real buzz out of creating and running courses (sometimes even attending them as a learner!). On the other hand, I harbour deep misgivings about the actual effectiveness of such events. And research findings seem to support my misgivings.

Most learning that is of relevance to work is not achieved through education or training. The figure that comes out as a general average from all the research studies is that at most 10–20 per cent of what makes a person effective comes from education and training.3

So, in the light of all this scepticism, the question is: ‘Why do we run training courses as often as we do?’ I can think of some silly answers (silly they may be but, be honest, how many apply to you?).

* We have always run courses.
* Our competitors run courses.
* Our staff/managers want courses; in fact, they think ‘real’ learning only happens on courses.
* We have well-equipped training rooms that need to be filled.
* Courses are in the budget – and the money needs to be spent, otherwise it will weaken our case next time round.
* We like to give people some time out of the office.
* Courses are a good excuse to get people together.
* We are required to tick boxes to say everyone has been trained.
* We have trainers who are superb classroom performers; it would be a shame to waste such talent.
* Feedback shows that our courses are popular.

Then there are some answers that strike me as being more sensible, such as these.

* We have a major initiative to launch and we need to win the hearts and minds of large numbers of people.
* We have some critical issues that we want our staff to explore in-depth in a protected environment free from distractions.
* We have an urgent need to train up large groups of people in a key skill to a consistent standard.
* We need to gather people together to consolidate and reinforce learning they have done as pre-work.
* We have some complex skills to develop that people are unlikely to master on their own without the benefit of an instructor.
* We have some generic skills people need to learn that will benefit from an intense period of practice with feedback from a trainer.

I’m certainly not offering this as an exhaustive list; please think of extra reasons for running a course (but double-check that they aren’t in the ‘silly’ category!).

I remain convinced that courses have their part to play, but more often in a supporting role, rarely playing the leading part. Perhaps we should make it a rule that when faced with a training need we first ask: ‘How can we meet this need other than by running a course?’ If we come up with a blank, or with a method that is too convoluted or prohibitively expensive, then, and only then, would we relent and offer a course.

References
1. Ian Cunningham, Graham Dawes and Ben Bennett, The Handbook of Work Based Learning, Gower Press, 2004.
2. Jake Reynolds, Helping People Learn: Strategies for Moving from Training to Learning, CIPD, 2004.
3. Cunningham, Dawes and Bennett, op. cit.

 

Dr Peter Honey, FRSA, FCIPD, FIMC is a Chartered Psychologist and founder of Peter Honey Publications. He can be contacted on +44 (0) 1628 633946, at peterhoney@peterhoney.com or visit www.peterhoney.com

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