RE-TRAIN THE BETTER WAY
February 22, 2016
It’s been the same story for decades!
Haven’t we all read headline after headline calling for “Training” “and Re-Training” as necessary to America’s economic future?
Even more troubling, we’re also told that the lack of sufficient training is a primary reason behind the exporting of American jobs.
As with so many problems, the cause is clearly visible — but, the means of solution are greatly flawed. And that is because the individuals who design the training prescriptions are myopic in their thinking.
“What worked for me will work for everyone,” becomes the mantra for the deciders of the re-training programs.
And the obvious result is that those re-training programs then become reading-based solutions — leaving most of the people who actually need the re-training unable to acquire the skills they so desperately require.
A truly educated person thinks laterally. They accept new information and constantly readjust their conclusions as new challenges warrant.
Conversely, an advanced college degree is no guarantee of educated thinking if it only guarantees a linear continuation of a status quo that no longer exists.
What are the facts regarding effective training today? What is the better way to achieve significant learning gains for, at least, fifty percent of our population?
Today, we live in a digital age of communication and few would-be learners’ eyes rely primarily on the printed page for information and knowledge.
Information, values and opinion are, for the most part, shaped by the two-dimensional images we see and hear on our smartphones, tablets, computers and television screens.
Reading for information has been de-emphasized in this natural evolution of knowledge transfer. Today, moving pictures of real people and real actions, making real sounds, are helping to shape the minds of our citizens.
It follows then that If this nation is truly serious about “Re-Training America” it must look toward the multi-sensory learning programs that are delivered today through computers, tablets and smartphones.
Only then can we begin to seriously address the “Re-Train America” goals that this nation and its under-employed require.
More on Wednesday – – –
— Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)