No Wonder: On-the-Job TRAINING Is Rarely Taught in College

by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.^®

We have heard for the last 40 years that employers “just can’t find the skilled workers they need.” Why aren’t there more people taking a critical look at this bold declaration? It gets regurgitated at every conference, in many newscasts and business publications as if it is a proven fact or biblical commandment, not the folk lore it really is. It was created in the 1980s as a pretext for employers moving their operations to lower-wage labor markets that have absolutely no local skilled labor and few candidates with a good foundation upon with to train. Employers committed to training those workers for the benefit of lower wage costs and access to that country’s market.

As employers continued to lean on the phrase to disingenuously express their dismay with state’s workforce development and educational institutions – whose only legitimate role has been, and should be, in developing graduates with a solid general and regionally technical skill-base upon which employers could build through task-based on-the-job training that only they could, and should, deliver – the pressure was so great that institutions transformed themselves many times in sincere efforts to accommodate the fabricated reasoning. Each time it resulted in little to no impact on the supposed problem, given the continued “we just can’t find the skilled workers” shifting of blame.

And as private equity bought up more and more firms, initially gutting any semblance of internal worker training efforts as “costs to be cut,” educational institutions followed by further modifying their curriculum for Human Resource Managers to de-emphasize a practice developed during WWII to quickly train the manufacturing workers needed from mostly no experience and weak core skill-base new-hires. This approach emphasized structured on-the-job training for the task-based, process-based competency needed. Any deficient core skills were remediated through focused classroom delivery, which aligned directly with the structured on-the-job training to follow. This approach survives today, albeit informally, in a watered-down form and seldom supported by management. But the omission from college curricula yields graduates with a misunderstanding of on-the-job training; that it means classroom learning and attendance rosters while employed. ‘Training” and ‘learning“ have, unfortunately, become known as the same.

Unaware of the significance of this omission, academic leadership and education administrators embraced this elevation of learning over training as “more work for them.” Education will do it all, leaving employers more “off the hook” for training new-hires on the equipment, processes and tasks unique to them. New phrases like “work-ready” were construed to mean “this worker could hit the ground running;” “plug and play,” no training required. Of course, employers continued to vocalize their disappointment in the results, but in reality they didn’t mind. They were set to offshore jobs anyway.

Private equity-acquired firms began laying off seasoned HR managers with valuable on-the-job training experience (since these HR managers typically were accordingly more highly paid), replaced by HR Generalists and HR Managers who may not have had a chance to gain the practical personal experience with informal “on-the-job training” through previous employment, but were willing to work for a lower wage,

To better understand the widening disconnect between practical worker development solutions and educational curriculum, take a peek at the course offerings and requirements for a degree in human resource management at the top 25 Colleges for Human Resources Degree Programs-2025 (College Factual^®) . “HR degrees are usually offered out of business schools and as such, frequently require a business core curriculum involving the following subjects:

• economics
• accounting
• management
• marketing
• business law/ethics
• calculus
• quantitative methods and analysis
• international business
• professional communication
• information systems/technology

On top of this core, HR majors will also take classes in:

• organization development
• industrial psychology
• conflict resolution
• negotiation
• diversity and cross-cultural management
• labor relations/employment law
• additional specialized electives: staffing, personnel training, compensation systems, and more!

Most programs then require a capstone internship or co-op experience in the senior year.”

These programs are more focused on the “business-side” of personnel management and appear to assume that employers are covering the worker training side by a worker simply getting hired. In reality, employers rely heavily on “Bob, this is Jim. Why not show him around,” calling it “training.” Somehow it works, since work gets done. However, it cannot be explained, measured, improved or documented. The only indicator that the informal training wasn’t effective or accurate is parts being scrapped or needing rework, equipment being damaged or a worker being hurt – unnecessary high prices to pay.  An employee’s, as well as the firm’s, potential is capped at a low level to everyone’s disappointment.

“Personnel training” topics might consist of: “writing a lesson plan,” “how to prepare slides as instructional visual aids,” “train-the-trainer (classroom),” “preparing training rosters -” all familiar to classroom “learning” activities but inappropriate for structured on-the-job training, where tasks are randomly scheduled, taught in pieces by different available instructors, in a “live” environment under pressure of production scheduling. But structured on-the-job training (even if present but informal) is the most important, and unfortunately lacking, component that determines if graduates with a solid foundation are successful in their effort to obtain and retain employment. It is also the key to higher worker productivity, better outcomes and higher overall Return on Worker Investment.

Task-based training has been the core of apprenticeships – registered or not – for centuries, and most manufacturing jobs are unregistered and unstructured, informal apprenticeships that, given some structured, serious commitment and recognition, could provide all the skilled workers needed, engage workers more, provide greater worker ROI to employers in each case, and lower costly turnover. Seems like a business “no brainer.”

If one can find a Learning and Development development degree program to further specialize, more emphasis is placed on task-based training techniques, task simulation for training, measuring training outcomes. However, firms forced to run so lean and are short-changing the HR manager position would probably not be interested in hiring and paying more for a specialist.

Here are a few other programs offered by recognized universities to compare:

The Ohio State University – B.S. in Human Resources program, Master of Human Resource Management

The University of Colorado – B.S. of Human Resource Management

Indiana University – Bloomington – B.S. of Human Resource Management

HR managers and generalists who have work experience prior to, or concurrent with, their studies toward a degree will spot this serious omission from their learning. They have experienced an employer’s “hands-off” approach to training, struggling to understand their role in the organization and how to competently perform the tasks required of them, leaving them vulnerable to termination and insecure. When training is available, it is typically informal, unstructured, haphazard and ad hoc – leaving the trainee to “fill in the blanks.” Students exit the degree program currently aware of the lost opportunity they personally witnessed, wondering why they didn’t learn better ways to train workers while they were in the learning mode in college. Instead of being an asset they could bring to the employer, the memory fades, as with a lot of what was learned in college, when buried in a world in which worker training isn’t the priority, but unending hiring, onboarding and monitoring attendance are.

HR managers and generalists who have no work experience prior to, or concurrent with, their studies are placed in a awkward position when the subject of “process-based” or :”task-based training” comes up in meetings. They tend to avoid the conversation, be defensive and reluctant to learn what this important side of worker training is all about. Some believe it must be irrelevant or it would have surely been taught in a 4- year program. As more and more of these types of HR managers and generalists replace the aging, experienced ones, structured on-the-job training faces being pushed aside by all of the latest “trends” and “products” purported to solve all worker development issues in every region, every industry like we have experienced – surviving as the more costly, informal practice of every company regardless. 40 years later, with all of these innovative approaches and learning models, employers “still can’t find the skilled workers they need.”

Having guest-lectured at several colleges and universities on the topic of structured on-the-job-training – from job/task analysis to develop  accurate “best practice” task procedures (incorporating existing process, quality and safety requirements) and identifying entry-level core skill and ability requirements to share with education, to using the JTA information to develop training materials and mastery metrics/documentation/credentials, to creating structured on-the-job training infrastructures that support ISO/AS/IATF and Nadcap quality programs, to upskilling existing subject matter expert informal trainers to deliver structured on-the-job training, to creating/managing workforce development partnerships between employers and educational institutions – the student interest in learning more is there. Especially from any who had that experience of employer-provided little or no training once hired.

It is not the new HR managers’ and generalists’ fault that they were shorted in their education, led away from a solution to worker development that has been needed, becoming more vital with each passing year. Two things have to happen in order to close the self-inflicted worker skill gap: 1) Employers need to stop pretending that their loose internal efforts to train their new-hire and incumbent workers wasn’t intentionally neglected, and sound, structured on-the-job training needs to be legitimized again, treating each worker as an investment that can significantly and sustainably provide returns. Employers should resist adding the professional activities of serious practitioner to an already busy employee’s job description. Without proper training the results might end the prospects of returning deliberate on-the-job training to its proper role. Plus, other job pressures pushes this function further down the priority list, leading to an erosion of support followed by unfounded skepticism and scapegoating. A cheaper, more effective solution is to find a professional that can help set-up the program and provide technical implementation support so the company’s employees can focus on businesses.

2) Educational institutions need to reevaluate their course offerings for HR Managers, reinstate task-based, structured on-the-job training and emphasize its importance to the employer’s bottom line. They do not need to train students to be experts in establishing and supporting structured on-the-job training programs, just understand the importance of the approach to a firm’s bottom line, explain and advocate for it with employers and partner with experts who can come in and help.

Deliberate one-on-one training has been around since the first craft apprenticeships. Why anyone would think successful worker training can be achieved without it is not a mystery, but incredibly unfortunate.

It will take a while to reverse coarse on this path the business and investment community put us on and to which our institutions adapted, but the first step is honesty and critical questioning of those who have the influence to create illusionary “trends” that rarely materialize, or materialize as predicted. Workers may not be up to another 40 years of neglect and the economy will surely not survive it.

Check out Proactive Technologies’ structured on-the-job training system approach to see how it might work at your firm, your family of facilities or your region. Contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. As always, onsite presentations are available as well.