As the season of goodwill is upon us, Paul Kearns wanted to end his series on a high. But he struggles to find any reasons to be cheerful about the state of training, in the shadow of the credit crunch, and the tragedy of Baby P. He looks ahead though to a wiser ghost of training future.
This series has not only attempted to flesh out a role for a strategic, bespoke, 21st Century learning professional but also to set a significant challenge to those who want to rise above that of the reactive trainer. Learning professionals are fully integrated with the way an organisation functions - both politically as well as operationally.
"The 21st Century learning professional realises, only too painfully, that training in a system that is broken or non-existent does not engender learning."I am conscious though, in this last part in the series posted just before Christmas, that we should be thinking of others less fortunate than ourselves and ending on a very positive and optimistic note. In the present circumstances, this might be difficult because so many of the news stories this year can clearly be viewed in terms of our continued inability, as a society, to learn from our mistakes.
Let us start with the recent death of Baby P - a possible re-run of the Victoria Climbie tragedy? But let us not rush to condemn, rather we should be simply asking why have the lessons not been learned? Inquiries might help to analyse the possible causes of a problem but they obviously don't, in themselves, resolve them. No doubt social workers receive excellent training, as do their managers, but what about council members and other officials whose job it is to make sure that the whole system works well? Who is ultimately responsible for child safety, fully accepts that heavy burden and ensures that all those in the system share their knowledge and expertise to move towards a goal of zero child abuse?
The 21st Century learning professional realises, only too painfully, that training in a system that is broken or non-existent does not engender learning.
We have seen many economists and political writers referring to the 'failure of the financial system' that caused the credit crunch and recession. Yet what no one seems to have admitted is that all the evidence points to the fact that we didn't have a financial system at all - that is if we define a financial system as something that ensures financial stability and minimal risk. Instead, really serious issues of financial regulation fell down the cracks between the tripartite set up of the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority. Whatever training was going on in these organisations none of it apparently addressed the most serious risk factors and, if it did, then it obviously proved to be ineffective. Let's hope we learn how to design and build a better financial system from the ashes of the old one.
Is this likely to happen though? I haven't seen a single word from the CIPD, BILD, TAP, the LSC, Sector Skills Councils, Investors in People, the Campaign for Learning or any other supposedly 'professional' body in the learning industry even acknowledging that there might be serious implications in how we in the UK, and the organisations we support, must learn for the future. Of course this is a problem of global dimensions though – no other country learned how to have a watertight financial system either – including the US, a country that probably spends more per head on training than any other country in the world.
The last story that I would like to highlight is that of the Metropolitan police force which has spent (like every other force in the country) vast amounts of money on diversity awareness training only to end up with a boycott on recruitment by its own Black Police Association. When will we ever learn that diversity is not something that can be resolved in the training room?
So where is the happy Christmas ending going to come from? Well, if this small sample of news stories is a reflection of the state of 'learning', and those who purport to be learning professionals, then whatever challenges we might face in the future there are enormous opportunities here just waiting to be exploited for everyone's benefit. We will all be a year older as this series finishes but how many of us are a year wiser? Amongst the myriad of benefits to be gained from effective learning there is the saving of lives, the minimising of risk and enhancing diversity – it probably is the only way to 'save the world' from itself. At a time when training budgets are likely to be under greater pressure than ever we need as many professionals as possible to ensure this fantastic learning opportunity is handled professionally and all of the benefits realised.
Happy Christmas!
Paul Kearns specialises in measuring the value of the human contribution to organisational success and teaches real evaluation around the world. He is the author of the CIPD's best selling 'Evaluating the ROI from Learning' and has campaigned for many years to raise professional standards. For more information visit www.paulkearns.co.uk
To read Paul Kearns's series The 21st Century learning professional, click on the titles below:
Real evaluation transforms organisations
The 21st Century learning professional is well and truly credit crunched
Training delivery is not the big issue
A serious case of mis-diagnosis?
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