AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Training You Need Vs. The Training You Receive
Being certified on a technology may be a nice to have, but if your are certified on a technology but cant support it in the unique setting which is your specific IT infrastructure, then the certification does not really amount to much.
In the past you would spend a dedicated amount of time in offsite training courses getting up to speed on a system, application, or networking environment. Often times these classes take weeks and at the end you are left with a tested knowledge of everything the vendor wants you to know about its solution. Back at the office, in your real-world heterogeneous IT environment, it's a lot harder to put these practices to use, and often critical skills are acquired in "on the job" training anyway. This disconnect between the training you get and the training you need results in lost time, inefficiencies and re-work.
What is needed is a new approach to training where classes are structured to fit in with the way we work today, and the way we use technology.
Courses that meet today's needs may be delivered through a combination of webcast, along with self-administered courses which are built in “bricks” allowing the student to pick and choose topics across technology platforms that are relevant to their current environments. Think about these learning “bricks” as a way to customize training that is relevant to the current real world environment. Students should then be able to apply that learning in a virtual lab at a pace that works for them and in a time frame that makes sense. This is not to say that all class room training will go away, quite the opposite, this new learning style will allow you to identify where skills need to be improved and then choose the right approach, which will likely be a combination of virtual, on-site and in-classroom training.
-- Robert Klotz, VP of Technology, Akibia
