Why Do We Learn? Considering CAD training

I thought I would try and give a little bit of insight into why we learn. I’m not referring to the physical bits, the synapses joining together to form memories which can be accessed at any time. No, I mean the actual motivating elements which gets us up and out of our seats and into a classroom. There are many reasons why we do this, and I will only cover a couple of them in this blog. I will also try and fit a type of learning to each motivation.

School

In the civilised world, we don’t really have the choice in whether going to school or to be home schooled, so I won’t be spending time covering this. I am more interested in when we have a choice in whether we learn or don’t learn, so we begin this a little later in life when we are gainfully employed.

Employee Placements.

A lot of companies today offer employee placements, this commonly comes in the form of the employee doing day release at University or College, helping gain some form of qualification which should be related to their job. I am all for this personally, but again, do many people actually have a choice in this? Especially in the case of apprenticeships, where this will be a stipulation rather than an option. If you get the chance of having this option offered to you, grab it with both hands. In my perspective, you are basically being paid to learn which is Nirvana in my mind.

Wanting new employment.

I have also been told that sometimes people don't stay at the same company for 25 years, as I have. So, if you are looking for a new job, do you even have all the necessary qualifications to even get to an interview stage? This is probably the hardest of all the motivating factors I find to go through. You read the job descriptions, and realise that you are not even close to getting to an interview for the role, so what do you do? You must weigh up whether you want to pay for a course on your own, so you get the necessary qualifications to make your CV pass inspection. It is however a gamble, and quite a big gamble for that. You really need to step back and have a think about your happiness, as well as your future. Is your current job really that unbearable, that you want to open your wallet? Realistically speaking though, unless you are looking for a complete career change i.e Mechanical Engineer to Cake Decorator, I'm not sure that it really is that necessary. You have fallen into a vicious circle that really is the whole point of me writing this article, your current role does not provide you with continuous learning and training, therefore you don’t have the skills to help you get another job. Why don’t you look at it like this, would you be happier in your current role if you got some training? Studies show that employees are much more content in their job roles if they get trained each year, it also demonstrates that the employer values you. If you ask for some training, great organisations will want you to do it.

This reminds me of a story, recently I helped train an engineering company that were really getting hit on productivity, nobody was innovating and basically, they were  operating the same way for the last 20 years. In a management meeting held, the subject of CAD training was raised, which would cost £20,000 for all employees to get some training that they desperately needed. The Financial Director posed the question "What happens if we spend on all this money on CAD training, and all of the staff armed with new skills get up and find another job". The Engineering Director's response in return was.

"What happens if we don't train all of these people and they stay?"

Your employer sends you on a training course

There are two different ways you can look at this, and which one you choose all depends on your outlook on life really.

1. My employer values the work that I produce and recognises that my skills need updating for me to keep the best productivity, they are willing to spend money on me to aid in me achieving this.
2. My employer thinks I am not very good at my job and implies I need to get some training, so I am not just taking up desk space, but so I can actually contribute to the company.

What is my answer to this? Am I a pessimist or an optimist? Do you know what? it doesn’t really matter which answer reflects your thoughts.

The result is the same, you get some training. However, the answer to the above question will have a huge impact on how much you will actually learn on the course.

If you attend the training, which your company has paid for, with a defeatist attitude, then know you probably won’t get much out of the training course. I have always maintained that I can teach anyone, whether they are young or old, with an intelligence level of either not so bright or extremely smart, a good teacher can teach anyone.

The one subset of people that I do struggle with however are those who think they know everything. Fortunately, I get very few of these kinds of people on my courses, and inevitably these types of people have just been sent on a course.

If your answer to the above statement was number 1, then you find online learning beneficial, as you will be motivated to actually take the time and use the online resources given resulting in you to get more productive, you would however gain more from attending some classroom training, as the teacher should be able to pitch the training to your level, as well as tailoring the course to put into perspective for your job. If your answer was number 2 however, then a classroom course would definitely be needed. Someone who isn’t motivated to attend a course, will not spend the time to learn from an online resource. They will always be too busy.

Remember every day is a school day!

If you would like to learn more about training at Symetri then please visit our website https://www.symetri.co.uk/training/