Rob Vetter is technical director and managing partner with the Ives Training Group, in Blaine, WA, USA, a leader in North American mobile equipment training systems since 1981.
Have you been properly trained to do your job? It's a simple question that typically elicits a simple response, yes or no. But does training imply competence? Certainly not, in my experience as a trainer of forklift operators. Delivered properly, training provides the what, how and why relating to everything operators need to know and do, but what it cannot do is answer the most important question, can they actually do it? There is only one way to find out - put them in the seat and have them go to it.
Computer-based training (CBT) programs, in spite of their often flashy graphics and cool soundtracks, cannot even begin to determine operational competence and I think everyone knows that, including the programs' producers. CBT programs, also known by the misnomer "interactive", do very little to develop and/or determine knowledge as well.
Electronic training aids can do wonders in filling out the visual component of training sessions but they are enhancements at best. They should never be at the core of a training program. A qualified human being should be the driver of an effective training program. Why? Because they can, a computer program cannot.
Last week I worked with a group of trainers at a company that, until now, used CBT to train forklift operators. The trainers told me that they had had trainees take more than two days to "pass" the written test component of the program for which two hours was allotted by the manufacturer. I asked them why, after three or four hours, someone didn't intervene and they said the program came with instructions that strictly forbade "interference" from outside sources.
Apparently, when trainees answered test questions incorrectly, they were simply directed back to the text where the topic was covered and asked to repeat. That is no different to watching trainees do something operationally incorrectly and asking them to continually repeat the task without the benefit of any training.
Through trial and error, eventually the trainees selected the correct answers just as, eventually, an infinite number of monkeys working with an infinite number of keyboards will produce a Shakespearian play. When I asked how confident the trainers felt about the operators' grasp of the topics, they just laughed.
There is no doubt the computer age has introduced fabulous electronic training tools that competent trainers can use to spice up their programs and enhance learning in trainees. But these tools are best used as aids and should never become the focal point. As for those who argue that computers, unlike people, do not have off days, they ought to spend a little time with
my computer.