Consultant thinking: Reports of the demise of classroom based training are premature

Distance learning has its place as the success of the UK’s Open University provides strong testimony. But business training cannot rely on distance learning alone.

In the professional services sector, time is money. Professionals keep time sheets and so the opportunity cost of activities other than fee earning is clear. The consequence is that managers may support the idea of training in principle but baulk at the hit that their bottom line takes in practice. So it can be very tempting for them to invest only in distance learning activities (to be done, incidentally, in people’s spare time!) and allow no time for face to face training.

They thereby lose the benefits of this essential training channel:

1. It provides a time and space for doing the training needed. Given the time pressure professional deliverers are under, will they otherwise give the time needed? We find this with our own training courses: despite many exhortations, course pre-work frequently has not been done, or has been done only partially.
2. Face to face training is interactive in a way that distance learning cannot be. You can ask questions!
3. Interactive skills – such as facilitation or presentation – can be practised only in a classroom simulation.
4. People learn from each other as well as from the tutor and the event.

Distance learning is not without its benefits of course:

1. It can be used to provide training on demand. In so many areas of knowledge management there is a delicate tension between “just in time” and “just in case”. A good distance learning package can provide upskilling or a refresher when the individual needs it – rather than having to fit some training schedule.
2. Time can be wasted in bringing together people for training (“synchronous training “) for activity that can be done individually (“asynchronous training”). So for example, getting people to study the theory before a course and coming with questions to a training course is a better use of time. (Those who have been through a tutorial system at university will recognise the merit of this).
3. Distance learning packages enable you to go at your own pace and study when you want to.

In Elevation Learning we’ve not offered much distance learning, but with the advent of a whole new suite of consulting qualifications to be introduced by the Chartered Management Institute and Institute of Consulting next year, we’ll be much more involved, as face to face training is only a fraction of the time needed for structured learning.

Calvert Markham