|
Contact
PMMI: |
A Light Refreshment? Training in the Short-Term for the Long-Run At a recent family get-together, the talk turned to education and teaching methods. I have a very large extended family; many of them are teachers, ranging from early childhood through high school to college levels. Some of them have been teaching the same subject to the same age group for more than 20 years. As teachers, they see their students several times a week for a full semester or even a year. On the other hand, I deliver many different types of short-term training to widely diverse groups. I was asked how I could deal with so many variations of training and learners; I was also asked how I could be sure that my trainees retained what they learned over a long period of time. The first question was easy to answer: the constant change in topics, people and locations is a challenge that keeps me learning and growing. I have to keep up with changes in methods, equipment, theory and practice. If I fall behind in my own knowledge, I can not train others. Meeting and training new people is also a fulfilling challenge. I am exposed to different industries, different personal needs, talents, objectives; different company requirements and procedures. I usually come away from a training knowing that not only did my students benefit, but I am taking something new away with me. I really like what I do, and I believe my efforts affect long-term job performance. Which brings me to the second question: How do I know how much my students retain for the long-term? I believe in providing opportunities for periodic refreshing of skills and review of job requirements. This requires several efforts: First, I try to maintain an on-going relationship with my client companies. If I can get feedback over time, it helps with designing refresher training, considering new methods and identifying new areas requiring training. Second, I try to be responsive to client needs for short refresher courses. While it’s often difficult to fit a half-day or one-day training into my schedule, I try to work it in. The expansion of the Internet and the capabilities of new on-line software allow me to offer an alternative approach to refresher training. I provide a self-paced refresher course, complete with on-line evaluations, through my website or the client’s internal network. The client company has their employees take the refresher and evaluation. It helps assure the company that their employees are keeping their skills up-to-date and lets the company and me know when the time is right for additional face-to-face training. There are services available to help you design short on-line courses. There are also hosting services that will provide a site for your course, as well as maintain and administer the course. It is an effective way of maintaining visibility for your company’s services and staying in the training loop with your clients. A graduate of Virginia Tech, Jack Lewis specializes in providing training for manufacturing companies. His experience in providing training services spans more than 20 years and covers subjects ranging from basic skills to quality systems and operations management to operator training. His clients represent industries such as primary metal production, instrumentation and aerospace bearings as well as packaging. |
| |
