EDUCATION/TRAINING: Some Differences

From “TRAINING MAGAZINE NETWORK” we find a most interesting blog by Geetha Krishnan that pretty nicely summarizes differences between “education” and “training”

Some stray thoughts, in no particular order, gathered over time, on the differences between education and training, from the lens of custom content creation for diverse companies across the world.

Education (even vocational education) is far transfer; training is near transfer. Hence the obsession of training with application (“I don’t care what they learn; I’m only interested in how they do their jobs better”), with reducing time to competence (the Holy Grail of training), with rapid development (they need everybody to be more competent now).

Education emphasizes first principles; training emphasizes application.

Education focuses on building the mind; training on building skills.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, America’s great educator of the twentieth century wrote, “The objective of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”

On the other hand, this blog has primarily focused on “training” issues — with an occasional foray into the “education” world. Regular readers know by now that most media training will only work if it is based on full motion video or gaming principles.

Those regular readers will also know that there are only two major tests for a successful training program: longer retention and increased on-the-job performance.

“Education,” on the other hand, is succinctly described in a “WASHINGTON POST” article by Daniel de Vise (“At St. Johns, a Defender of Liberal Arts”) and featured comments by Christopher Nelson, President of St. John’s College:

“In an era when many recession-scarred parents have come to view college as a path to a higher income bracket, Nelson dares to define it as the route to a life well-lived.

‘As important as the world of work is to us, we don’t live in order to get a job,’ he told an audience in San Francisco this year. ‘But we work in order to make it possible for us to live a good life.’”

Today, higher education (including much vocational education) is failing their “a life well-lived” purpose and focusing too heavily on only the skills side of the equation.

As Robert Maynard Hutchins predicted, “The specialization of American education has robbed students of the ability to communicate with other students outside of their field. . . . a student of biology cannot converse meaningfully with a student of mathematics because they share no common educational experience.”

“Education” and “training” both have their purposes. However, in this second decade of the twenty-first century, “training” is doing a far better job.