For What Its Worth
Computing stories, Training
In the early 1990s I was talking with a Teacher for one of the major CAD companies. We were talking about strategies for getting a weeks training class done without interruption by management, maintaining class attention and getting effective use of the system. Then he told me about his experience in Russia.He went to teach a training class somewhere near Moscow. He didn't speak Russian, but they had an interpreter. He thought it was going to be a nightmare, new system, new users etc. The system had been installed for about a month. The first thing that happened was they didn't want a lecture, they had questions. They spent all week long asking questions. They had already been through the manuals and every command on the user interface even though they were in English. They just needed him to fill in the blanks. In one month they had progressed to where most took a year or more to get to.
The Russians were driven. Why? In the new economy they had to make it work or go hungry. Make profits or go broke.
Training is a lot more than what you learn in the classroom. It is what you do with the knowledge that is offered.
