Is an Apprenticeship Without Structured On-The-Job Training an Apprenticeship?
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Career and vocation-focused training is a pivotal point in every current and future worker’s life. This world is overwhelmed by forces that make the effort more difficult for the education and training providers, more urgent and critical for the learner, more scrutinized by the employer and constantly measured against time; how long the training takes (which determines costs) and the relevance of the skills acquired to the targeted job which is always moving to the next level of technology. If the training is not “continuously improved” and maintained to be predominantly current and accurate, the graduate may find that jobs for which the new-found skills were targeted now marginally or, even worse, no longer exist.
In theory, apprenticeships offer a promising approach for traditional trades and crafts. As of 2008, more jobs can be registered as apprenticeships with new models accepted by the U.S. Department of Labor. If the program is based on a sound structure and methodology (one that can work for any type of job classification), an apprenticeship capstone – the job-related, employer-based training – would be maintained current and accurate for at least the employer apprenticeship host. Without this component, an apprenticeship experience may be as hollow as some of the for-profit educational chains which are often criticized for high costs and low placement rates. Read more.
How Start-Ups and Technology Transfer Partnerships Can Benefit From Structured On-The-Job Training
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
In the December, 2105 issue of Proactive Technologies Report article entitled “”Enterprise Expansion/Contraction and Worker Development Standardization” this topic was touched on as it explained the process of standardizing training for expanding, contracting, merging and acquiring enterprises. It discussed how to take inventory of incumbents and new-hires in training, and how to standardize multiple worker development strategies. But what about standardizing tasks that are in design, have just been designed or are evolving in their design? Or the importance of this component in creating an enterprise to perform the tasks meant to lead to profit from an innovation? If the goal is the repeatable high-quality performance of tasks once they have been formalized, then standardizing and documenting the procedural steps is necessary, though often an afterthought.
click here to expandEntrepreneurs and engineers that design and fine-tune a production process or service strategy are immersed in it until they feel confident it is ready for scaling. Whether through “expert bias” – the overconfidence that results with satisfaction in discovery leading to the opinion that everyone should understand their innovation – or through mere oversight, a brilliant idea can fail in proliferation during efforts to transfer the processes and techniques without a formal structure. Read more.
Worker “Prior Learning Assessment” – Documenting Cumulative Work Skills and Knowledge Acquisition
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Older workers, boomers, generation X’ers and Millennials, have either encountered or seen the point on the horizon when they may be separated from their job and need to sum up the training, education, skills and experiences of the last years, or lifetime to date, in a one or two page resume as they hunt for the next open position. How does one accurately and adequately summarize 5, 10, or 40 years of experience so the next potential employer can recognize the value and determine the fit to their organization’s needs? Can a person profile their life experiences and skill acquisition in a way that is complete and compelling?
For the last 20 years, many employers have used a “key-word” search filter to scan resumes, disqualifying millions of potential workers for not knowing the right words to match the key-word to explain their experience. Now that a vast majority of employers have realized the deficiencies of resume scanning programs – disqualifying well-qualified candidates for one – they are back to looking for substance in the resume to be substantiated at the interview. Being able to succinctly and completely summarize one’s education, training and work experience is more important than ever as more qualified people compete for fewer quality jobs.
click here to expandThe new generation of high school graduates will encounter the same challenge, but unfortunately have less content to draw upon. But from the moment they enter the workforce they are adding value to their personal portfolio for every seminar they attend and every job for which they obtain and apply new skills and master new tasks. For every type of worker this “accounting” represents their value to their current and future employer and vital to maintaining their place in the economy.For many, they have yet to take an inventory of their personal worth and “intellectual capital,” and have failed to clearly detail it for anyone else to accurately sense the same value. Many have never even thought about it until pushed to take an inventory or explain their worth through job loss? Read more.
Piece-Part Incentives Gone Wrong
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Sometimes we are tempted to take the easy route, even though it may cost more in the end, offer much less on the path to the desired outcome or cause us to repeat the effort another way. Shallow analyses and shortcuts often lead to unintended consequences. Changes to weaken metrics to convince us, or others, that progress is better than reality only postpones solutions to the underlying challenge. Too often we are focused on the search for a solution to a symptom and not the problem. The example I am about to share represents all of these tendencies.
As a Quality Control Line Inspector at an aerospace manufacturing facility in my early years, one of my first assignments was to in-process inspect work samples from several rows of NC Lathes, Mills and Grinders. I was assigned there with the implicit instructions to be on the look-out for “problems” identified by management: decreased quality yield, substantially high rates of scrap and rework, which lead to increased worker costs and lower returns. The proposed solution was more rigorous quality inspection of parts in-process before they became a component of an expensive sub-assembly or assembly.
click here to expandWhile making my rounds, meeting the operators and inspecting samples, it seemed I was seeing evidence that management identified the “problem” correctly. I say problem, but my feeling was that I had not gotten to the root cause of what I was observing. I was rejecting parts at nearly every work station, on every pass. I decided to dig a little deeper – get to know the operators a little better to see if I could determine why this was happening. Read more.
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