Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Training Burn

The word 'Education' is undoubtedly one of the most 'pious' words in the English Dictionary & 'Knowledge' is widely hailed as one of the biggest virtues of mankind.What makes 'Knowledge' so ubiquitous is invariably its free-flowing nature...the way it gets transferred from one entity to another.However,the quality of knowledge spread/imparted depends entirely on the source.....how well it is taken is incumbent strongly on the way it is given.Therefore, comes the importance of 'Training'....a core-area of Human Resource Management.Though,the term 'training' is too pervasive & is omnipresent in our life...maybe more often coined as 'learning',what's haunting me more nowadays is 'forced-learning' for professionals at workplace,coined as 'training'. Every Company is investing big-time on training these days.After all,what impact does it have on the work-force? For the few interested,it might be 'learning'...but for the reluctant many,it's just a break from work...more so in case of outstation-trainings.Hence,comes the challenge of designing better training programmes & content so as to avoid the potential 'fish-out-of-water's.equally important becomes a proper training-need-assessment exercise which is largely absent in psu's.But,when it comes to fresher-training s in IT-companies it's a different ball-game altogether.Some software-biggies have the creepy provision of firing trainees if they can't clear the much-dreaded exit-tests.Probably,those companies can afford the loss...which the trainees who get sacked can't.Training,by definition is imparting knowledge,not an elimination process.Still,if it turns out to be so then the actual selection process has to be deemed faulty.lastly,I'll come to 'Behavioural Training'.MDPs or programmes on 'Team-building& Leadership',however enjoyable they can be,hardly stay back with the participants...as they leave with the mindset..."Asif we didn't know all these'. Therefore,comes the importance of preparing specific training-material for the particular group/organisation/industry catering to in order to make it relatable & follow up with seeking feedback after some time so as to gauge effectiveness of the training at workplace. Training is in every way a team-work,and it is not only as good as the trainer but also the trainees.