February 29, 2016 Without something resembling a liberal arts education, combined with an extensive vocabulary, in-depth thinking becomes restricted. Without the skills training one receives in high school and college, as well as from corporate training departments, the ability to excel in one’s chosen career becomes limited. In terms of the former, most individuals are on their own as a liberal arts education becomes more and more de-emphasized. No worry, however, for...
February 24, 2016 As an introduction today, I’d like to share some survey information that has recently come out of London and relates to younger professional workers: 39% have spent time developing skills online and 50% of respondents would prefer taking their training online. I have little doubt we’d find similar results were we to poll our American workforce — particularly our millennials. Relating to those findings is a most interesting article...
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...
February 17, 2016 Beware of the oft-used title — “customer service.” As practiced today, customer service is merely an organization’s response department in which the sole obligation is to respond to complaints, error reports and other problems. In actuality, it exists not to protect customers but to defend the best interests of the vendor. What you should be seeking is a courseware vendor that practices “customer assurance” — a training vendor that...
“ APPLIED TECHNICAL COMPETENCE “ February 15, 2016 For organizations in the process and manufacturing industries, applied technical competence is the basis for increasing productivity and quality while minimizing downtime and re-work. The IOP (Institute of Physics) describes competence as: “’the ability to perform activities to the standards required in employment, using an appropriate mix of knowledge, skills and attitude.’ All three aspects must be present if someone is to be effective...
February 10, 2016 . . . vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities—not just skill in reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also general knowledge of science, history, and the arts. If we want to reduce economic inequality in America, a good place to start is the language-arts classroom. . . . . . . correlations between vocabulary size and life chances are as...
February 8, 2016 “Colleges and universities in the West derive from medieval bodies established primarily for teaching and training (principally in law and medicine). Their purposes were established by reference to a common culture, common goals, and a common source of normative authority. By stages, things changed with the reformation and the development of civic universities. The first colleges in North America, however, were again religious foundations based on the liberal arts....
February 3, 2016 Higher education has its place in preparing our next generation of trainers and instructional designers. Theoretical understanding is important. However, when it comes to teaching “templates of learning design,” higher education seriously misdirects the student. Cookie-cutter solutions are never the answer. Every training challenge undertaken has specific — not, generic — solutions. Templating (either by the organization itself or by the purchase of a vendor’s templated courseware) will not...
February 1, 2016 Among its many attributes, multi-sensory training brings learning efficiency. There are several obvious reasons. Multi-sensory instruction reduces seat time. Estimates are that learning occurs 38-70% faster than with traditional classroom instruction, and course content is mastered 60% faster. Perhaps equally important is, that when compared with traditional classroom instruction, multi-sensory training also results in better learning. Studies show that participants increase understanding by more than 50%, resulting in greater...
