Technology Evening: Passive vs participatory training methods
Eric Carter (left) thanks Chris after the presentation.
This presentation, held at the Endress+Hauser head office, was presented by Chris Gimson, now the training manager at E+H.
As Chris pointed out, there is a considerable difference between training and learning. It is fairly easy to slap together a PowerPoint presentation, put a few people in front of it, and say ‘We have trained’! It is rare to find new and trained employees who exactly suit your requirements, and existing staff need to be kept up to date continually. So how do we make training more effective than the traditional classroom techniques in today’s practical high tech world?
Endress+Hauser has approached this problem by introducing a different training strategy based on the 'ADDIE' (analysis, development, design, implementation, evaluation) concept developed by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). One of the more important things to come out of Chris’s talk is that the loop needs to be closed: unless training is reinforced on the job, much of it will be wasted. There needs to be a combination of seeing, hearing and doing during the training, but that this must be reinforced in the workplace. This means that supervisors must also be involved, so that the cycle can be completed.
Thanks to Chris and Endress+Hauser who sponsored the event.
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