Does training work?

So a guy loses his job, sees a career counselor who advises him to learn Word and Excel, which he does. But he still cannot get a job, according to this true story in The New York Times.

Does training work?

Yes, training works. But:

1.People have to be trained in cutting edge skills that gives them a competitive edge. My grandmother trained people in how to use a gas stove; people in my town were trained on how to dial a phone without an operator in the early 1950s. Neither of that training today would get anyone a leg-up in the job market. Neither, apparently, does Word or Excel. It would not be a hiring advantage in my organization.

2.Training cannot replace education.  Otherwise, why have education?  Taking high school graduates and training them will not make them competitive with college graduates. Giving them a college degree would make them competitive.

3.Business needs to invest in training.  Business knows better what it needs than the government and career counselors.  That does not mean business should do the training. Community colleges and schools and other nonprofits conduct training better than for-profits, in my experience. But without business paying for it, and directing where to spend training dollars, aimless training becomes jobless training.

4.Of course, training cannot create jobs.  See #3 and our weeklong series on business investment on why we don't have more jobs.

That said, yes training works. The NYT also featured a success story at a LERN member institution, Dakota Tech, where training graduates immediately got jobs in a specialized field with specialized skills.

Comments

[Suzanne]

I couldn't agree with you more. And, yes, training someone in Word is like training someone to use the phone. Can you imagine going on a job interview and being asked "Do you know how to use a telephone?" Getting training in Word isn't going to get you anywhere, because the assumption is that everyone already knows Word.