Training Versus Learning

Over the past few years there has been a significant ‘shift’ as organisations have sophisticated and begun to realise that the pick and mix, sheep dip approach to people development doesn’t achieve the impact necessary.   Now the talk is of learning, Training Managers have become Learning and Development Managers, Training Departments have moved the same way.  Often the terms learning and training become interchangeable and with a hierarchy being adopted where training becomes secondary to the (perceived) more value-adding process of learning. 

What most organisations are missing is that it’s not either/or but instead its about the dynamic combination of learning and training and it is on this which we believe all people development should be based.

What Does The Combination Look Like?

First of all, let’s get our definitions clear:

• Learning focuses on achieving permanent changes in behaviour.   Learning interventions are generally longer term, driven by providing the individual with the opportunity to achieve the changes through personal experience or practice.  Interventions tend to include things like 1-1 coaching and mentoring and 360 Feedback.
  
• Training focuses on the acquisition of new skills and knowledge with training interventions generally being event driven.  Classroom based workshops and pure play e-learning courses all feature heavily in the training arena.

And the differences between the two?

Training	Learning
Skills development	Behaviour change
Externally applied	Internally accepted
Short term skill uplift	Long term change
Equips for known challenges	Equips for ambiguous future
Meets current organisational requirements	Defines organisational future
Focuses on the group	Is focused by individuals
Primarily structured	Primarily organic
‘Doing’	‘Understanding’

Structured Training understand this combination and deliver solutions through which:

• Provide relevance by tailoring the solution to the individual rather than the group.
  
• Balance the need for tactical skills injection with longer term strategic development.
  
• Create ownership and commitment by enabling the individual to drive their own development. 
  
• Draw on theory and best practice and connecting them into the individual’s day to day reality.
  
• Optimise the return on training expenditure by focusing on the real rather than the perceived need.

All Structured Training solutions contain a range of activities and techniques all designed against the backdrop of the organisational objectives and tailored to suit the needs of the individual.

To find out more about how Structured Training can help your organisation dynamically combine the benefits of learning and training please contact:

Claudine McClean
T: 01789 734300
E: claudinem@structuredtraining.com