Business Tips: Training - Adult Learners - Part 1

Today and tomorrow I will be taking a look at adult learners - how they learn, attitudes towards learning and the implications of such factors for the trainer.

As a workplace trainer you will of course be working with adults, even though at times it's hard to keep that thought in your head!

This means you should have knowledge of their characteristics and how they learn. Below is a list of assumptions that you should consider when training:

* Adults need to know the relevance of the learning before undertaking to learn it. (sounds a bit like myself at 13).

* Adults have a self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions (sounds like me at 15).

* Adults bring to training a wealth of personal experience (that's what I thought at 16).

* Adults become ready to learn those things they see as immediately relevant to them.

* Adults are life centred (or task centred/problem centred) in their orientation to learning.

* The most potent motivators for adults are internal pressures such as self esteem, life quality etc.

* Adults have their own individual style of learning.

Adults need to know why they must learn something before undertaking to learn it. When adults decide to learn something on their own they will invest considerable energy in probing into the benefits they will get from learning it and the disadvantages if they do not.

When training you should:

* Explain how the learning will be useful in real-life situations.

* Help learners discover for themselves through real or simulated experiences the gaps between where they are now and where they want to be.

* Help learners become aware of their needs by using personal appraisal systems, exposure to role models, job rotation etc.

Adults have a self concept of being responsible for making their own decisions. They often resent others who are imposing their wills on them.

This can be a problem in adult training situations particularly if it resembles previous school experiences where they are told by others what they have to do and how they will do it.

Tomorrow I will discuss how these attitudes have implications for the trainer.

For further information contact Mike Hitchen Consulting