Education is one of the basic human rights and there is no doubt that a quality education has a major role in one’s development. That being said, the way formal education looks like has chanced tremendously over the years, as a response to society’s progress and increasing complexity. Times are now less simple than 200 years ago, for example, and it challenges our educational system to review what is relevant and what’s not when it comes to our school curriculum, our pedagogical methods and even the way we prepare our teachers and trainers. Yesterday’s job profiles might need an upgrade in order to match everything we need in today’s world.
Questioning the curriculum and the methods is not a bad thing, per se.
Especially when you read stories about Einstein’s grades in school or Tesla’s “carrier” struggles. On the other hand, you have people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who don’t have an University degree and yet they did “make it”.
But that’s not a rule. It’s not to say that parents teach their kids that it’s ok to drop out of Highschool or Uni and pursue their dream of becoming a rogue scientist or a famous football player, without having a plan – unless they do 🙂
Life is not always predictable and straight-forward and yes, sometimes brilliant people don’t care about the college degree – or they don’t wait for it. Once they have an idea, or a dream, or even just a direction, they go for it! They do their “homework”, finding out what they need to be learning or practicing or building and they do it. That is the key point – they work for it! Anyone who “made it” worked and studied and paid their dues in what seemed like endless circles of trying and failing and trying and failing again, until they stopped failing. Until the end result was fail-proof.
Those famous names I mentioned, they are a minority. Most of the professionals, those really good at their job, took the classic road of graduating from well-known academic institutions and getting more and more specialized in their field. Most of them do have their office wall full of diplomas and credentials – and that is a good thing.
I do believe education is very important,
not just for developing one’s skills, but more important, for shaping one’s mind. Those training years – are not about simply gathering information and practicing a skill. That process is setting the right mindset – that would allow you to achieve higher and more advanced skills, even after you are no longer a student.
Once you have this continuous improvement mindset, you never stop learning. You keep developing and exploring your potential. That is extremely valuable and appreciated, in certain professions more than in others. The ability to keep being creative and “alive”, to have an authentic input at your workplace, is a personal feature – it varies from one individual to another. But it can also be influenced by the work environment and, to be more specific, by those who are trainers and mentors and team leaders. By those who are the “teacher’s voice” for that person.
I strongly believe in the importance of that teacher, trainer or mentor, in someone’s life.
It has the power to help them strive or thrive, it can make them underperform and hinder their professional growth or, the opposite, it can motive them to achieve more and to become a better version of themselves. I am sure that, even while reading these words, you’ve had names and faces and memories passing through your mind – of mentors who have inspired you and to whom you feel like you owe your achievements and even your carriers, of people whose praises and affirmation made you believe in yourself and had lift you up in difficult seasons. Maybe you even thought of some less motivational voices from your workplace, those who were doubtful or unable to please or less willing to help. You know them better than anyone else, and there is no need for me to stress on the importance of having good, caring leaders in our work communities.
I believe in a world where the people we train matter to us, more than the training material. A world where they are more than a “target audience”, they are our main focus.
In my opinion, we should design our classes and our trainings with our “students” in mind – so that when we teach, we are more focused on them than on the message we want to deliver. After all, an efficient training is a lot more than just information (be it technical or theoretical). It has to also consider the proper learning techniques and pedagogical skills, the right amount of motivation and inspiration and of course, a genuine interest for the well-being of our trainees.
In my dream world, or in my dream team of great trainers, I want our students to be focused on learning and growing, developing their skills and engaging during our sessions – basically enjoying their classes rather than completing them for a diploma.
Most of us, trainers, we know that this is more than a job. As in, even if we don’t call it a “gift” or a “calling”, we do it out wholeheartedly, with dedication and, at the end of the day, we want to do our job well. We do care about quality and results. But we also care about how everyone feels during the learning process. Along the years, we’ve developed our skills and defined our own style, and, even if sometimes we need a little help, we can make learning fun for our students. Because when they enjoy the “classes”, that subject matter becomes more relevant and even more appealing to them.
Also, the more we start seeing more than our piece of puzzle or our slice of cake, we win in terms of relevance and dept. For example, we started preparing the training materials out of the need to teach software testing and development. That was the initial driving factor. But reality is that, along the way, we had a lot to gain in developing our trainings from a wide range of different areas, such as psychology, coaching, philosophy and even history and religion.
It may sound too general or like we are getting farther away from our goal, but I believe we need to approach our “lessons” in a global way. The more we consider or at least we have an open mind when it comes to what people need in order to function and grow in that specific matter, the better they would get it. The more we integrate the new stuff in a wide range of notions that are familiar to our trainees, the easier would be for them to grasp what we are trying to teach. The easier will be for them to make sense out of it and to work with it.
Because life does not happen in little independent boxes, but in different kinds of interconnected layers. Everything has to do with everything. And that’s ok, because people are beautiful complex creatures and they can handle it.
