WE’RE EVOLVING

Training . . . It sure ain’t what it used to be!

Nope — we’ve come a long way down the technology trail in the past three decades. The training challenges for our industrial workforce have been immense. And, the trade-offs involving instructional design, production values, plus cost and efficiency issues have complicated the entire process.

However, the heart of the matter has not changed. Learning values have always been balanced against corporate issues, involving both money and efficiencies.

Maintenance and Operations training for our workforce has never been more necessary. And, the opportunities for more effective learning have never been greater. E-Learning and CD-ROM Technology have made more and better learning a reality, while increasing the necessary retention time. Mechanical Maintenance, Electrical Maintenance, and Instrumentation Training are all better attuned to job and task applicability today. Full media-rich training has, provably, contributed to the financial returns enjoyed by the wiser American corporations and to our workforce.

We’re going to need these better skills, too, as processes get more complicated and multi-craft training continues to evolve. Well-designed, media-rich training will help secure incomes in these difficult economic times and improve conditions for our workers and their families. And, in the process, American industry will, once again, find its competitive edge.

Training can never be replaced or long delayed. Media-rich Training has reopened the doors to productive learning. We are successfully transitioning from less successful lecture-textbook instruction to the newer multi-sensory learning opportunities. As Marshall McLuhan first foresaw nearly fifty years ago, “The Medium is the Message.”

Today, “The Medium has become the Message” and is ratcheting open bright new worlds of learning and productivity. E-Learning, Simulations and Gaming will lead our way into the next decade.

Our workforce will embrace these learning media because, after all, they are already a part of our modern Learning Culture.

Management, at their peril, must not underestimate the critical importance of these new learning innovations. Their corporate futures -– and, the competitive future of the United States — will depend, more and more heavily, on “training that will substantially improve learning application and retention.”

Media-rich training (and, education) will be that answer!

More on Tuesday – – – – –

— Bill Walton, Founder, ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”