TRAINING VS TEACHING

TRAINING VS TEACHING

During the course of a discussion the following was the topic selected by the forum members:

Why is training so important for a job/on the job after undergoing so many years of education ? Does it mean that the trainers are doing better job than the teachers ?

The following valid points emanated from three members are reproduced here below for the information of the readers

Member 01:

Necessarily there is a difference between a teacher and the trainer.   It is like working in a hotel. A person who manages the kitchen is called the chef and the person who manages the entire administration is called the “manager”.The same person can be a chef at one point of time and a manager on remaining occasions, however, the role differs according to the responsibility undertaken

In the instant case, the teacher fills the knowledge gap. He is instrumental in enabling the student learn more on the subjects selected. In the case of a trainer, he enables the trainee to acquire certain competencies. Unless a person acquires the necessary competencies like communication ability, leadership quality, time management, inter personal relationship, problem solving capability, emotional skills etc, whatever may be his academic caliber he cannot justify the post he occupies. It may be managing a retail shop – where he has to handle the difficult customers, manage time to service the customers promptly and efficiently.

Member: 02

As earlier said, the same person can be a teacher and the trainer. While he performs the role of a teacher, he concentrates much on the subjects he has to handle rather than the behavioural aspects of the student. The cause, he may not be having required time and to mention specifically , as a teacher he has to necessarily make a thorough research over the subjects he handles and should be in a position to clarify the doubts raised by the students at all times.

In the case of a trainer, he has no subjects to teach. He has only personalities to train. Towards training the personalities he  focuses his in depth study in reading  mindset of the trainees and  employs various tools to impart the necessary skills at appropriate time  like communication ability, leadership quality , problem solving ability , time management, logical thinking etc etc

When the boy wants to learn a subject, his role is said to be a student and when he wants to learn his own competencies and soft qualities, he is called a trainee and while the teacher makes an earnest attempt in enabling the student understand the subjects, the trainer enables the trainee understand his own traits measured in the form of strengths and weaknesses

Member: 03

In a sense dice are loaded against the teachers and in favour of the trainers. A teacher has to cover a variety of topics. It is almost everything under the sun. Most of the business schools especially in countries like India expect the students to cram as many as twelve to fifteen courses in a semester  during the course of acquiring MBA qualification. This increases the burden not only on the part of the students but also on the teachers as well. Normally they are always on the comparison mode with their counterparts in other business schools. The time available for completion of these types of exercises is very limited. Moreover, teachers by virtue of the qualities acquired through their profession rarely possess real life experiences to highlight the students in pursuit of acquiring any soft qualities.

A trainer on the other hand has fairly a narrow and focused set of items to cover, These are normally related to the immediate job requirements of the students. The trainer needs to have varieties of live-wire examples to drive home the trainees in understanding the required competencies and the lab or practice sessions which are more valuable to bring in requisite skills are also likely to be more focused in case of company-organised or facilitated programmes.

In the case of industry-oriented  training programmes, the focus is requirement based and confined to limited walls. This is almost a luxury that the teacher in a school or college environment cannot afford.

The teacher by default, has to cover a wide range of topics which in many times deviates the focus

How to counter this ?

The school curriculam should be brought out in such a way  that  more thrust  is emphasized in bringing out elements consisting of information flow, knowledge generation, skill building and application of mental capabilities.