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Posts from August 2016

THE MAINTAINERS ARE ESSENTIAL

August 31, 2016 This past weekend I came across a brilliantly conceived opinion piece by Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel, “Hail the Maintainers:  “Capitalism excels at innovation but is failing at maintenance, and for most lives it is maintenance that matters more,” published in AEON. While the article concerns itself with a broad definition of “maintenance” it certainly applies directly to the individuals who read this post and to the worlds of...

THE STARTING LINE FOR TRAINING

August 29, 2016 Those organizations that desire to get the most out of their training initiatives will routinely begin with an appropriate Skills Assessment! Skills Assessment testing comes first! “Skills are the most important assets your employees possess. Well-honed skill sets give them the opportunity to master tasks and improve their work performance. This is why skills assessments are an essential part of a successful online training program. They allow organizations to...

OUR SCHOOLS ARE CATCHING UP

August 24, 2016 “Just how big is the universe, how small is an atom, and how long have we humans lived on Earth, compared with dinosaurs? Such answers are better learned with an iPad, according to a new study that shows just how tablets tap neurocognitive abilities that help students understand enormous scale and other difficult concepts.   Students saw learning gains after as little as 20 minutes of study on the...

SUCCESS STORIES

August 22, 2016 Actual experience from users is the best test of any training program. Media-based learning has passed that test for the past three decades —- first with IVD (Interactive Laser Videodisc) followed by CD-ROM and today’s e-Learning examples that are NOT word-based or PowerPoint conversions. Media training programs that are rooted in full motion video, animated graphics and optional full audio have been passing the test, for many reasons.  Here...

DESIGNING FOR EVERYONE

August 17, 2016 It seems pretty clear that corporate America has decided to embrace e-Learning as the training medium of choice.  The advantages of cost savings, 24/7 availability, and easy conversion of existing information are all winners for the decision makers charged with profitability responsibilities. What is lost, however, in this rush to adopt e-Learning, is the historical emphasis on retention and transferable skills acquisition.  And, today those can only be attained...

SKILLS TRAINING FOR INDUSTRY

August 15, 2016 Industrial Skills Training is a branch of training designed to develop the skills and knowledge required of workers in the process and manufacturing industries. Skills training in the process and manufacturing industries has grown in importance as processes within the plants have become more and more complicated. The Manufacturing Institute in a recent “Manufacturing Skills & Training Study” provides some statistical insight:  U.S. Manufacturers Continue to Experience a Skills...

IS YOUR TRAINING BENEFICIAL?

August 10, 2016 As you well know, typical media courseware has an exam at the end. The courseware with meaningful exams has a bank of questions that are randomized but, at the same time, asks at least one question for each of the learning objectives. And yet, that “final exam” will not be sufficient to measure the results of your training initiative. In addition to formal testing, you need to follow up...

TAKING STOCK

August 8, 2016 “According to ASTD, the overall spending on employee training in the US is $165 billion and the average employee receives 30.3 hours of learning per year. The average cost to train each employee is $1,195.  What do these numbers tell us? Organizations care about training. Period. With so much effort devoted to training, the real question becomes evident: Did anyone really learn?  It’s clear that learning and development professionals...

WE’RE GETTING BETTER

August 3, 2016 Last week we learned that, “Early education across the United States is a mishmash of day care, Head Start and preschool programs with a wide range of quality and effectiveness. But a federally sponsored program in 20 states has been effective at giving those states a way to assess and quantify early-childhood education options and make that information available to parents, educators and legislators, according to a study the...

IMPROVING FOUNDATION SKILLS

August 1, 2016 We all know that a solid background in industrial fundamentals is essential to a well-trained industrial worker. Work practice, tool use, mathematics, reading and writing are the necessary foundation skills that are, too often, essentially ignored in most training curricula. Of that list, reading, writing and math training are the most often omitted simply because we assume that those skills already exist in our employee population. An incorrect assumption!...