Business Tips: Training - Adult Learners - Concludes

Over the last two days, I have discussed how the attitudes, motivation and perceptions of adult learners impact on the trainer. Today's article concludes this particular series.

Adult learning focuses on the problems of the immediate present. There are usually pressures on the adult to resolve conflicts and solve problems quickly, hence adults tend to experience a need to learn quickly and get on with living. They are often reluctant to engage in learning activities or content that do not appear to have immediate and pragmatic application within their life.

Education is a process of improving adult's abilities to cope with their daily problems. Educational activity appears as being problem or performance centred. Implications for learning include:

* Focusing on the concern of individual participants and developing learning experiences that help meet these concerns.

* Starting the learning experience using the problems and concerns currently have.

While adults are responsive to many external motivations such as better pay, promotion, etc. the most powerful motivations are internal - desire for better job satisfaction, higher self esteem, quality of life style etc.

Implications for training include:

* Ensuring that the programs aid self esteem and promote better job satisfaction.

* Ensuring that there are sufficient resources and opportunities to use those resources in training.

Tomorrow I will discuss Learning Styles - auditory - visual - kinaesthetic - combination.

Mike Hitchen
Mike Hitchen Consulting