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Building a Career Through Lifelong Learning
Why Most Workplace Training Programs Are Missing the Point: A Honest Assessment from the Trenches
The training industry has become fixated with buzzwords and ignored about actual humans.
Having worked in learning and development for the better part of two decades, and honestly? Most of what passes for training today is complete nonsense. When I first got into this industry, learning happened through mentorship and hands-on experience. Messy, sure. But it worked.
These days it's all about costly platforms and metrics that tell us nothing meaningful. It's crazy.
Here's what nobody wants to acknowledge: most workplace training fails because we're trying to fix people problems with technology solutions. I was at a client site last week where they needed a full day to explain a system that should take half an hour to learn. The facilitator kept banging on about "user experience optimization" whilst half the room couldn't figure out how to unmute themselves.
The Real Problems Nobody Talks About
Australian businesses are throwing money at training like it's confetti at a wedding. I saw a statistic somewhere that puts global training spend at over $300 billion each year. That's a enormous number. The reality is that retention rates for formal training are terrible.
I was working with a mining company in Perth last year. Brilliant operation, safety record that would make Wesfarmers green with envy. The formal training requirements were a complete waste of time. Online courses that people completed while doing other work. The real learning happened during smoko breaks when the old-timers shared stories about near misses.
The penny dropped: we're training for assessments, not real work.
Manufacturing companies seem to understand learning more clearly. Been to plants in regional Victoria where people develop skills through real projects rather than academic exercises. The magic happens when knowledge gets passed down through hands-on experience.
Good luck convincing head office when they've spent six figures on digital platforms.
Simple Solutions We Keep Overlooking
Peer to peer learning crushes formal training every single time. The evidence is undeniable across all sectors. Pair seasoned workers with learners on actual projects and watch skills develop naturally.
I've seen impressive buddy systems at major financial institutions. Simple approach: seasoned employees guide newcomers through real situations. The data is clear: improved retention, faster learning, increased engagement. Simple stuff that works.
Yet most organisations still prefer classroom style sessions where someone talks at people for hours about theories they'll never use. Why? It's simpler to track and report. Easy to create compliance reports and dazzle management with participation statistics.
While experienced workers leave without sharing their expertise because we haven't created systems for knowledge transfer.
Got this completely wrong in my early days. Believed I could package all learning into neat courses that suited everybody. Wasted countless hours building supposedly perfect welcome modules. Fancy graphics, participation exercises, embarrassing pretend scenarios.
Total disaster.
Realised that everyone requires unique methods and support. Who would've thought?
EQ Training Mania
Emotional intelligence courses are the latest craze. Most tender documents mention EQ requirements. As if emotional awareness comes from presentation software.
I'm not saying emotional intelligence isn't crucial. Obviously it matters. But the way we're approaching it in corporate training is wrong. Emotional skills come from practice with actual people. Not through digital quizzes that label your behaviour patterns.
Had a client in Sydney spend serious cash on EQ training for their management team. Fancy facilitator, beautiful venue, detailed workbooks nobody ever opened again. Six months later, their employee engagement scores were exactly the same. Turnover actually increased.
Want to know what might have worked? Training supervisors to genuinely connect with staff. How to listen without planning their response. How to accept their limitations.
But that's harder to package into a neat training module.
Technology's False Promise
The ed tech industry keeps promising that AI and machine learning will change workplace training. Individual learning journeys, responsive materials, targeted knowledge delivered instantly. Sounds brilliant in theory.
Fact: the technology fixes non problems and creates new ones.
I watched a company deploy a "smart" learning platform that was supposed to identify skill gaps and recommend relevant training. Required enormous investment and nearly a year to put in place. The system recommended basic computer skills to experts while ignoring critical service deficiencies.
Meanwhile, their best performing team was quietly running informal knowledge sharing sessions during lunch breaks. No technology required.
The real innovation in workplace learning isn't coming from Silicon Valley startups. Innovation comes from businesses that build environments where knowledge sharing happens naturally.
What I'm Seeing That Actually Works
Certain businesses understand effective learning, thank goodness.
Bunnings runs outstanding product education programs. Instead of formal modules, they get suppliers to run hands on sessions with staff. Physical items, honest questions, practical issues. People acquire expertise to assist shoppers, not tick regulatory boxes.
Trade training that blends theory with practical mentorship beats academic only approaches. Vocational programs linked to real businesses provide genuine career prospects.
The pattern is always the same: learning connected to real work, guided by people who actually know what they're doing, with immediate opportunities to apply new knowledge.
Still, organisations prefer traditional teaching methods because they're known quantities.
What Nobody Wants to Hear About Training Satisfaction
Training providers won't like this: happy participants don't necessarily learn anything. Delivered programs that got excellent feedback but produced zero lasting impact. Conversely, run training that participants hated initially but that genuinely improved their capabilities.
Effective development can be confronting since it questions current practices and demands new behaviours. Yet difficult learning experiences get negative reviews, causing us to drop them.
We've built workplace training for participant satisfaction rather than actual learning outcomes. Similar to evaluating fitness centres on entertainment value rather than health improvements.
Where to From Here
There aren't simple answers to fix this mess. Honestly, I'm not sure anyone does. Learning and development has prioritised systems and metrics over the fundamental goal: enabling people to improve their job performance.
Maybe the answer isn't better training programs. Possibly it's designing environments where skill development occurs organically through job structure and human connections.
Could be we need reduced classroom time and increased collaborative learning on genuine projects.
Possibly optimal growth occurs when we quit micromanaging education and begin trusting individuals to learn with proper guidance.
Or maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic for simpler times when learning meant watching someone who knew what they were doing and gradually getting better at it yourself.
Regardless, current approaches fail the majority of learners in most situations. Denying these problems won't make them disappear.
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