Session 9 Blog

Activity Log

March 9:  Downloaded pod cast.

March 10:  Listened to pod cast.

March 12:  Posted new page to my blog and posted to classmates blog.

 

Professional Development

Good vs. Evil

While working in the private financial sector I received excellent technology training (and I cannot stress how good the training was, it’s like having Brad Pitt instead of Marlon Brando star in your next beach movie), this corporation took training and staff support seriously.  Throughout my training, which was a mix of computer training and on the job training, I received feedback, support and rewards for my performance.  It seems they understood that it is not only important to have a well trained employee but a motivated one too.

Working for a public local government entity I received sub-par training (I have written about this nameless county on my previous blogs, please keep up).  The training lasted longer then it should, the trainer was inadequate, we spent more time ‘on break’ then we did in actual training, when we did on the job training there were no computers to work on, and the food was a little salty (one thing this county did right is feed its herd).

Key Differences

• The financial sector job trained to the mission of the company not the technology (although it was heavily invested in technology), the county job trained to the technology, very little was taught about what the results really meant or how to get the same results using paper and pencil (this was necessary on the many times that the platform was ‘down’, it was probably on strike since this county tends to work everyone and every thing to the bone).
• The good training I received was in part to the method that they used of individualizing my training, I was solely responsible for my participation and the results I received.  I was expected to reach certain benchmarks and be able to use that information on the job.  The not so good training that was forced upon me was done in a classroom setting with several other individuals.  We were taught all the information at the same time, even though the guy at the front of the class didn’t get some aspects of the training and the girl in the back didn’t have her glasses half the time, so they both always had questions.
• The high quality training was done in small increments of time, the training was broken down into self-contained units that alone can function.  The poor training that I received was an ongoing process where we left off at whatever point in the training we were in at the end of the workday.

If I were to recommend a training model to emulate I would choose one that has been successfully implemented in a for profit corporation.  The differences between training methods used at for profit companies and those used by public entities and school districts are that training is more of a secondary concern for school districts instead of an important step in training personnel.  Because schools and counties do not compete they do not need to learn to be effective and efficient, they can trudge along while sucking at the taxpayer teet (if this is offensive I apologize).  In private corporation models training is used to improve service, cut costs and become efficient, publicly funded entities do not have work in this type of competitive environment.