Type the word "training" into any Internet search engine and thousands of sites devoted to the subject will pop up. As South Africans are compelled by legislation to offer training in the workplace, companies that offer training are sprouting up everywhere. Within such circles, training is often a subject of intense debate and each course strives to outdo the other by offering training subjects that they deem necessary in the workplace.
Skills are imperative, but it is how, why and what we use them for that determines the type of success and fame we will achieve.
Jill Hamlyn, MD, People Business
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines training as an act or process of teaching or learning a skill, discipline, etc. The bare infinitive of the word is train, defined as teaching an animal, person or oneself a specific skill. The OED further gives the example of training a dog to beg, or being trained in a profession.
The emphasis is on instruction (and the importance of the instructor may be deduced from this) as well as on the skill being imparted. This skill is usually at the discretion of the instructor and is chosen by those who need to be trained in the form presented by the course and instructor.
Overrun by courses
Training is very much a buzzword at the moment. A couple of years ago, there was a dearth of training programmes and initiative needed in order for training to take place. Now we are overrun by courses promising tailor-made programmes and great results. In order to make their skills development levies work for them, employers are finally recognising the need for training.
However, I firmly believe that a more pressing need has overtaken the need to be trained, and workplaces should recognise this as timeously as possible. Although there are many training courses that are extremely valuable in the workplace, it can be argued that the content of these courses is only as relevant as the instructor is able to make them.
Considering what we know of the human attention span, which is only 45 minutes at a time under optimal circumstances, material considered irrelevant is simply tuned out. The majority of people on an intensive training course can also only take away so much information with them, and much of this may be forgotten in a frighteningly short period of time.
Manuals are often of little help as they sometimes present pages and pages of information in small type without pictures, which can be very anxiety provoking. However, this is not to say that training is not a valuable commodity in the workplace and that any training schemes and initiatives should be abandoned without further ado.
South Africans are accustomed to being schooled. However, what is now missing from the equation, and which needs to be brought into consideration if workplaces are to survive in the current world economy, is the issue of people development.
A brief foray into semantics confirms this viewpoint. The definition of development as it appears in the OED is a stage of growth or advancement. The bare infinitive is develop, which can be defined in two ways. The first is the process of making something bigger, fuller, more elaborate or more systematic, while the second is the process of bringing or coming to an active or visible state or to maturity.
Simply looking at the difference in meaning between the words "training" and "development" should be enough to convince a majority in the South African industry that development of people in the workplace is crucial and cannot continue to be ignored. Training cannot be substituted for development, no matter how good, or how sincere the promise of tailor-made is.
Skills are imperative
A concept closely allied to development is that of potential. Being instructed may impart skills and knowledge, but development leads to the fulfilment of potential. Potential, once realised, is something that can never be forgotten as it is the pinnacle of the best of the self.
Skills are imperative, but it is how, why and what we use them for that determines the type of success and fame we will achieve. Potential derived from the development of the self facilitates the best use of knowledge.
People development is a concept for the New Millennium. To utilise a metaphor derived from IT, just as a sluggish computer is upgraded or replaced with a new, sleeker and faster model, so people development can be seen to be the upgrading of the self and the replacement of sluggish, outdated ways of thinking with thinking that is set to take us far into the future. How thrilling to be part of a process that creates and develops people in such a positive way, and with such positive outcomes.
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