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CORPORATE TRAINING EXPERIENCE FOR LIFELONG EDUCATION
A. M. Novikov
Introduction
Corporate training is a part-time vocational education, training and advanced training for employees at enterprises and institutions1. Distinctive feature of vocational education for employees at enterprises (institutions, companies, corporations, etc.) is that it is not a part of institutional education, but one of subsystems of operational management at an enterprise which provides goods, services or information. Therefore, vocational training becomes a tool for solving general organizational and economic issues of the enterprise in tactical and strategic ways. To understand and estimate the role, possibilities and development trends of the subsystem, we must match its mission to certain stages of socio-economic development.
Researchers have noted that 3 industrial eras consequently followed one another during the 20th century: (1) a mass production era in which qualification was defined as an employee’s ability to produce goods (perform operations) according to enforced standards; (2) a mass marketing era in which qualification was described as an expert’s ability to define his/her attitude to the job, understand it, suggest changes or adapt to them; (3) a postindustrial era in which the “qualification” concept concedes to a “competence” idea, meaning a set of abilities which enables responsible and accurate performance of activities finally realized within key competences (the ability to efficiently interact in socially diverse groups, independently solve non-standard issues, act professionally by being responsible and improving skills and algorithms).
Each era was dominated by a certain operational framework for enterprises (companies or corporations). Mass production is characterized by scientific business management. Line production demanded the work of all employees to be standardized and operation of divisions to be synchronized. The mass marketing era was featured by the “human relations” idea. Changes in the framework were caused by: understanding the role of informal staff communications, which could significantly change operational efficiency; increased legal power of trade unions defending employee rights; need for attracting consumers to goods. The postindustrial era is marked by the idea of enterprise as an open social system. Since manufacturing time for goods and services has been essentially decreased, the viability of companies now completely depends on creative decisions and management. Intellectual potential becomes the enterprise’s main assets. These conditions determine relevant development forms and stages of vocational staff training. Corporate education involves various forms of staff training, from company instruction to development philosophy.
Staff training has several features. An adult employee has 5 distinct qualities: (1) self-identification as an accomplished person; (2) greater socialization
1 In USSR, this mode of studies was called “Direct staff training and advanced training in industries”.
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due to larger life, professional and social experience, which is a reason for greater responsibility for the work done by the employee; (3) readiness to study (motivation) defined by the urge to solve one’s own professional as well as sociopsychological issues happening at work; (4) focus on instant application of acquired knowledge, skills and abilities; (5) interest in a basic selection of optimal expert decisions since education is mostly governed by making such decisions.
Corporate education is developing rapidly. Notably, the experience acquired in the field can often be successfully implemented with certain adaptation at general and vocational education institutions. We consider several examples, in 2 aspects: firstly, in terms of application of experience as educational forms, methods and technologies for students; secondly, with relation to educational institutions.
Educational forms, methods and technologies
Training is a method oriented to develop knowledge, including social knowledge. Trainings are widespread in corporate education. Training can be regarded from various points of view as: (a) specific “drilling” in which required behavior is formed with positive enforcement; (b) practice in which skills are acquired and drilled; (c) active education with the purpose of passing certain knowledge and skills; (d) creation of conditions for self-realization of participants and independent search for solutions to their problems.
There is no unified and generally recognized classification of trainings, so they can be divided by various parameters. In particular, 3 general types of trainings are identified by target effect and changes: (1) skill training is aimed at formation and development of certain skills. Most business trainings are skill trainings, e. g.: trainings on negotiations, self-presentation, sales, etc.; (2) psychotherapeutic training (or, a more correct term, “therapy group”) is focused on changes in consciousness. These groups are associated with existing therapy trends such as psycho-dramatic, body-oriented, dance movement therapy, etc.; (3) social and psychological training is intermediate since it provides both changes in consciousness and skill formation. Social and psychological training is often designed to change social attitudes and develop skills and experience in interpersonal communication.
Other training types: (a) business trainings for executives and managers help to reduce financial and time losses, to activate reserves not used previously and to improve general productivity; (b) post-training (post-training support) is staff care to support positive training effects and provide implementation of obtained knowledge, skills and qualities in daily professional activity. Post-training can be carried out as seminars, workshops, reviews of training parts, coaching and counseling, e-mailing with trainers, and distance courses. Coaching is a certain type of trainings.
Coaching is an individual development program performed within group learning, the result of which is an updated ability to achieve the goals set in the most optimal way. The program starts with testing and estimating each participant by professional coaches with psychological education and broad experience. Hence, in a specially created map, participants can observe their potential, strengths and weaknesses. The coach works with each participant during the whole course of professional training (re-training), aiding the participants to capitalize strengths and compensate weaknesses. The program is combined with
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general and group trainings. The coach determines the level of participants’ success in social interactions, how they express their leadership skills, how effectively they use their individual resources (time, contacts, money, qualifications, etc.). By application, career coaching, business coaching, personal performance coaching and life coaching are defined. We also want to speak of a coach’s role. A coach is an individual trainer and psychologist. With certain coaching techniques, a coach does not advise but “listens” and asks the “right” questions which aid people to activate their abilities and possibilities to improve comprehension and exceed habitual beliefs and limiting stereotypes, i. e. teach people to self-develop. Support and guidance of students helps them to study individually, and make their own decisions to solve problems and tasks in their life, career and business.
Various trainings and coaching gradually develop at the advanced training faculties for teachers and educators, but can also be used in other educational institutions.
Simulated education, a didactic system which is often called “active education”. However, this does not reveal its specific character since activity is a requirement for any educative method. Simulated education is based on modeling various relations and real-life terms within the educational process. Organizing students’ activity and adequate social life transforms a school of knowledge disconnected from reality into a school of life and activity, ensuring its students with natural socialization and making them active in their lives. Focusing students on social, scientific, cultural and other realities allows them to see their life perspectives and, therefore, plan and deliberately develop their abilities.
Technically, simulated education has 2 methods: (1) analyzing a particular situation. A real situation with certain positive or negative consequences is given. Students must identify a problem, state it and determine its terms, chosen solutions, and their adequacy, etc. The act already done is analyzed in this case; (2) solving situations. An unsolved situation is modeled. Students must not only state the problem but, having united in groups, study the options for its solution. Then there is “defense” of the solutions, and a group discussion is organized.
Advantages of simulated (modeling) education are: (a) an active approach (as opposed to verbal), organization of group study activities. These activities develop communication, thinking, self-consciousness; (b) use of a group as a means for personality development through immediate self-evaluation and selfcontrol as group activities enable everyone to participate in discussions in a scope each particular person is capable of: these can be positions of a leader, creative brain, opponent, listener, etc.
We consider the 2 most common types of simulated education. 1. Business simulation game is a simulated real situation modeling when participants act as if they follow the given roles in reality. Thus, reality is replaced with a certain model. Examples are staff exercises and military maneuvers, simulators for technical system operators (pilots, EPP operators, etc.), administrative simulation games, etc. Business simulation games are often used for learning. Besides participants, arbitral groups managing the models, recording the game course and generalizing its results, are important as well. 2. Case study is a learning method. Students are supplied with a packet of controversial documentation, or case: materials on some
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company activities or particular original historical documents, etc. The task is to sort out the facts and form one’s own attitude, evaluation and expert opinion.
Action learning is a training method for enterprise staff. Each participant works on an individual project by planning required actions and carrying them out. Planning the steps for solving the task and analyzing the actions done is performed within working group sessions. Generally, a group consists of 5-6 enterprise employees and an advisor. Meetings take place once in 2 weeks or a month. The task of each session is to study one’s own and one’s colleagues’ experience in solving a real problem (project) through asking questions which help each participant to understand what and how must be done. Results are discussed at the final conference. All enterprise employees, representatives from clients and other associated groups participate in it and the task is to discuss all changes which happened in the organization within the course of action learning. This method can be employed at schools, colleges and universities.
Time management is a development program for students’ self-discipline with relation to time resources used. This system of exercises ensures orderly improvement of one’s own performance through formation of a habit to order upcoming affairs, set priorities, define important, urgent, less urgent and secondary tasks, and based on this list, to plan a performance sequence. The program value is notable in time tight for solving several diverse tasks. Time management is widely used in corporate staff training. However, it can be applied for other stages of education, including nursery schools.
Development of educational institutions
We now shall consider options of employing corporate training experience for sustainable development of educational institutions in general.
Learning organization is a 1990s trend in organizational behavior based on admittance of knowledge value for improvement of a competitive position. Organizational knowledge is contained in products of human activities (databases, formatting), organizational structures (roles, benefit schemes, procedures) and people (abilities, values, practices). For various experts, there are different ways of exploring the world. Therefore, learning procedures shall consider these basic differences in methods of gaining experience. Learning ability involves many structural and functional features of companies and is beyond planning and realization of corporate staff training. The development level of a training company can be analyzed with regard to: events encouraging learning; delegation of powers to subordinates; development of internal PR; active information exchange with environments; development through experience of other companies (benchmarking); introduction of innovations; group discussions of problems and search for solutions at all levels. Apparently, these approaches can be successfully deployed in educational institutions for their innovation development.
How can a company become a learning organization? There are 3 important conditions, successful accomplishment of which contributes to establishment of the learning organization.
1. Company management interested in working success. Learning organization starts from the boss realizing the need for ultimate changes. This is a quite difficult yet essential condition.
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2. Special methods used. This is project management and various forms of this approach among widely known methods, and action learning among less popular techniques. A learning organization can be established by transforming every and each project into a learning one. Action learning is a technique which creates culture for a learning organization. By using it, the company learns to cope with a gap between theory (assumed actions, knowledge) and practice (activities). Action learning is one of the most efficient ways to establish culture for a learning organization through its employees’ development. Thus, a non-transferable “knowhow” is not particular employees with their experience and knowledge but the culture of organizational learning and development.
3. Management and organization development advisors involved. This condition is important for several reasons. Firstly, working together with project advisors significantly boosts and facilitates the process, as a management and organization development advisor does not only apply changes in the company but is also an example of learning approach in work. Especially, as far as re-thinking and changing the company’s development is involved. Secondly, an advisor deploys specific methods which include learning organization techniques. Thirdly, to see the obstacles limiting the company’s abilities for learning, an onlooker is needed. In fact, at the initial stage, an advisor’s work is to help the company’s management to view the whole scheme of how the company functions, what the company’s chances and options are, and what limits its efficient development. With properly determined priority areas to be changed, the terms and success of the whole project are measured.
Learning organization is a combination of advanced management tools rather than a new model of organization development.
Knowledge management is a consistent approach for determining all theoretical and empirical data, which an organization, enterprise or institution needs to accomplish the goals set, as well as for this information to be distributed and applied by the staff. Experience gained in a certain project and formalized in a computer database with the company’s knowledge can be further employed in new projects. Knowledge management, being a part of modern management theory, deals with problems of generalization, processing and usage of knowledge on contents, forms and methods of organizational management. Generally, knowledge management is defined as a consistent and targeted creation, distribution and application of knowledge (information) critical for a company’s strategy and goals. Knowledge management involves organizational and technological components. The organizational element is a company’s policy with regard to knowledge management, i. e. various administrative procedures for storing, structuring and analyzing the data to efficiently use it in the future. Technologies (mainly IT) implement the administrative procedures, yet can not replace them.
In project management, knowledge base is information formalized and specially organized in the information system for project management by standard networking project schedules, project management tools, etc. Knowledge base contents are arranged, associated and represented in a way to be reusable for generation of new knowledge and solutions for a particular project with specific software tools. Besides working schedules, in project management, there are also: decision-making procedures, project participants’ roles, projects structure, projects
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life-cycle stages, interactions and administrators’ activity results. Standard roles for project participants are assigned images for standard elements in the organization (e. g.: project manager, administrator, etc.), having their strategies and performing certain actions in the project. The working schedule for each project is unique, yet can consist of previously used practices saved in the knowledge base.
Standard project structure is base structures for: work breakdown, organization, resources and various secondary structures for, e. g., project costs or coding. Standardization of project structures is the most essential element of project management in any modern company which enables cost reduction for project planning and control, comparison of diverse projects, and preparation of analytical reports on project performance, etc. Unified terminology allowing all employees to equally understand terms and definitions of project management is an important step for using standard project management solutions.
Apparently, knowledge management technologies will be the most prospective for large educational institutions, e. g.: federal universities, educational centers, etc.
Benchmarking is a learning method. The term shall be defined as a comparative evaluation of a situation, e. g. company’s activity or staff based on certain factors. These can be working efficiency and production quality, satisfaction of clients and various staff categories with activities of a company, its staff, management, etc. A comparison is performed with a successfully functioning structure, thus a company can belong to a different industrial branch than a comparison model. The benchmarking objective is to search for new options for improvement and further development of a company or staff.
Educational outsourcing implies the involvement of an external educational institution, consulting company or educational center for staff training, retraining and advanced training. Reasons why companies invoke educational outsourcing are: (a) growing complication of the business processes; (b) the urge to get maximum performance quality with reduced costs; (c) the possibility to release resources and focus on main activity; (d) critical need for new expert knowledge, etc. A classic example of outsourcing for domestic educational institutions is a student internship at enterprises. Other instances are when education is partly performed in resource centers, etc. while, in the long term, development of educational centers and online universities.
Crowdsourcing is a transfer of certain functions to the general public based on a public offer which does not imply signing a labor agreement. While in outsourcing, the work is executed by experts for certain money, with crowdsourcing a company usually pays nothing or little. All required work is done by unpaid or low-paid employees and volunteers who spend their free time to create content, solve problems or carry out research and development.
Franchising is granting the sole rights for one’s own educational program abroad to a foreign educational institution or legal body. Thus, within franchising, the Russian International Academy for Tourism educates students through Italian and French educational institutions for tourism. The International Institute of Management LINK provides education through programs of English Open University. However, we do not know if any foreign institutions have franchising with Russian educational institutions.
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Business education is another trend in vocational education for adults which is relatively new for our education and fully connected with the market economy. Generally, business education is vocational training for people participating in management of companies and enterprises which are market-driven and profit-making. Principles of educational and organizational activities at domestic business schools are as follows: (a) pragmatism as focus on business and entrepreneurship development, practical specificity and individual significance of educational material; (b) interdisciplinary education which ensures learning of economic, management and law subjects as well as issue-related courses; (c) theoretical and empirical understanding of the economy, situational approach, real-process modeling; (d) dialogue between educational centers, social practice and environment; (e) flexible programs, module-based further vocational education; (f) diversification of education due to various educational goals; (g) various education levels, forms and methods, incl. training of teachers and advisors for business schools and centers.
The competence approach in business education envisages wide usage of interactive lessons (seminars in dialogue mode, computer simulations, business and role-playing games, real-practice situation studies (case studies), action learning techniques, applied projects (incl. after the company’s materials), psychological and other trainings, etc.) together with extracurricular activities. Some business schools practice lessons at real companies, e. g. where students work. Students even can open their training business for practicing the methods learnt. After course completion, such a business is “inherited” by the next students who continue experimenting with it.
Another important activity of business schools are social clubs or networks which often grow into global communities and online alumni fellowships. These communities are a benefit for students and applicants as well as business schools. Besides good advertising, alumni clubs often provide their school with financial and social support, employ future graduates and some even participate in the educational process. Distance-learning programs of certain schools include consulting and communication with tutors and advisors from the global community. Alumni clubs can be useful for development of many domestic educational institutions. The alumni club of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and its activities are a good example.
Thus, we considered some options for employing the corporate training experience at educational institutions to improve the educational process as well as to develop educational institutions as organizations.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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