COMPANIES NEED TO TRAIN EMPLOYEES

Same Complaints Everywhere

They have finished secondary school but they can’t add without a calculator.

A quote from a US politician seeking election? A comment from a freshman college math professor? A discouraged small business owner from anywhere USA? No; though that kind of quote does pop up frequently in US dialog.

Actually that quote belongs to a director of human resources from a Brazilian company. Brazil has many of the political educational issues found in the US. Many of their traditional educational strategies have failed in the eyes of Brazilian businesses and politicians. Brazil’s economic growth has fallen behind other developing countries and the blame is directed at education. Brazilian politicians are vowing to change the system and create a new legion of 21^st century workers.

Another political effort that will ultimately fall short, much like the US-based No Child Left Behind legislation. The problem is that knowledge in every arena is growing faster than schools can teach and re-tool. Teach any work skill you choose. By the time the person graduates and is hired, the information is dated. Education will not be any more successful anticipating future workplace needs than was Sisyphus with his boulder. Completely modernized a school, spend millions of dollars in capital improvements, books and computers, hire the best instructors and for one, maybe two years, your school will be relevant to the workplace. By year three, it will be dated.

The answer is two-fold. First, schools need to take a liberal arts approach to K-12 education. Teach all students the basics in reading, math and writing and blend those skills with creative programs such as art, music, debate clubs, chess and school writing projects. Wait a minute you say; don’t schools already do that? Yes and No.

Schools teach those skills in K-6 and in nearly every instance, standardized tests reveal that teachers and students are doing an excellent job. In fact, on the world scale, K-4 results in reading and math ranks as one of the best. But by eighth grade, most of the momentum is lost and by the eleventh grade, the US is mediocre at best in world rankings.

The reason for that free-fall from best to mediocre is the transition of the classroom from student participation to blackboard lecturing as students get older. The connection between learning and creativity is squelched in favor of preparing for standardized tests. Plus schools in their effort to be efficient and seen as improving fail to make education relevant to all students (especially those students with no intentions of attending college).

In many school districts, nearly 50 percent of the students have no focus for their education other than graduation (for the majority of students that is a given as long as they maintain attendance). For these students they are just there. Schools focus on students who are college-bound by offering more challenging courses, AP courses, labs, creative writing and extra-curricular activities such as leadership academies.

Schools need to create learning environments that benefit all students and at the same time prepares student with the same degree of engagement that is evident in K-4. If every student can read and write at their grade level, much of what is currently missing will be resolved. (Successful attainment of these skills is reinforced with creative outlets.)

The second part of the solution is industry training and development. This used to be part of every industry: train the workforce and promote workers through a system. As knowledge changes, it is much easier to tweak workplace education rather than let outsiders anticipate what is necessary. But workplace education issues are two-fold.

One, industry and business don’t want to cut their profits by providing training and development. Providing education means having an education department and employees who leave the job to attend courses. This kind of commitment cost money and in the short-term productivity and profit will decrease. While it is less costly to push those efforts into schools and adult training programs, the long-term effects reduce productivity and profitability as companies are ill-equipped to respond quickly to new developments.

Second, the more a company invests in their workers through education and training, the harder it is to justify termination during slow periods. An investment has been made and losing that worker also terminates years of training and preparation.

Once again, short–term company profits are desirable over long-term benefits. If companies can’t arbitrarily terminate workers, how can they weather downturns and recessions? Unfortunately, this is not an argument but a self-serving attitude. By having a skilled and veteran workforce, downturns and loss of productivity are less likely to occur.

From another perspective, record profit in industry and business makes it difficult to accept the notion that there are inadequate numbers of skilled employees. People must be doing something right to be that productive. And that means schools are readying people for today’s job market.

One final comment about industry and business training. Only companies know what they need from an educational standpoint. Only companies know the most effective means of training and education to fit their needs. Company sponsored education and training is the answer to future growth and productivity.

Does the US have a workplace training and development issue or is this another round of politicians attempting to justify privatizing the public education system? Is it really education’s objective to provide human cannon fodder for companies? Or is education the act of developing minds and bodies to be good community citizens?

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