The search for skilled laborers has become a great scavenger hunt. Recently, ManpowerGroup released their seventh annual talent shortage survey which proved skilled trades are still among the hardest positions to fill in 2012.
Today, we are somewhat closer to realizing the dreams that will be made possible by online learning. However, the need for digital technology to catch up with the new learning designs required is greater today than it’s ever been. Just what are those goals and challenges facing us — and by extension, our companies, our co-workers, and our society — as we move through these uncertain times? Certainly, the training requirements of...
It seems like it was not too long ago that the Komotini, Greece industrial zone was buzzing with factories that employed almost 20,000 people. But today, nearly a decade later, many of the factories that once produced an array of goods from ceramics to textiles all sit in desolation, rusting, looted and overgrown with weeds. Perhaps a harsh model of the impact Greece’s economic downturn has had on the manufacturing industry. Today,...
With the potential for growth clear, how should producers of E-Learning courses proceed? First, we must acknowledge that effective educational programming has always been a designer’s medium. It has never been an evolving electronic gadgetry world. Therefore, it is important to remember that E-Learning has been developed with the capability of becoming yet another communication tool for transferring skills and knowledge — just as the written word, printed text, and video have...
Over and over again we stress the importance of manufacturing training, as it is critical to the development of industrial skill sets within any workforce. Some manufacturers choose to search for skilled laborers while others opt to implement industrial training programs to further the skills of their current employees.
Those of you working in education or training today readily recognize that students and our younger workforce learn best if the skills presented are packaged around full-motion video, gaming, and/or simulations. Television has been the great communication tool since the 1950s and both gaming and simulations have been entrenched in our learning environment for the past few decades. So it was not surprising that, with the advent of CD-ROM instruction a couple...
The recent 2012 Executive Employer Survey was released by Littler Mendelson, P.C. and interviewed an array of corporate executives who are generally in charge of hiring and management of human capital. The survey found that most respondents, approximately 71 percent, plan to continue hiring in the coming year, while only 8 percent plan to lay off full time employees. Respondents to the survey also noted that some leading challenges they face include...
Why do supposedly responsible individuals continue to create PowerPoint presentations and then ascribe the word “learning” to their creations? Why do E-Learning courseware vendors continue to produce and sell adapted PowerPoint presentations? Why do vendors of LMS’s continue to tout the capability of their associated authoring systems to convert PowerPoint presentations into an E-Learning environment? One of two reasons — of which “ignorance” is the more easily forgiven. PowerPoint is slick, attractive...
The Beige Book is a regional review released eight times per year by the Federal Reserve which surveys each of the Fed’s regional banking districts. The most recent report was released on Wednesday of this week and found that conditions in the U.S. economy grew moderately in most regions throughout the April-May period. Growth ranged from moderate to modest in 10 of the 12 banking districts, while the Boston district remained steady...
All training is not equally effective. All courseware titles are not equal in scope or production design. All trainees do not come to you from a single learning culture. Many studies have proven that traditional “lecture/reading/testing” training programs no longer give the payback in skills acquisition and ROI that they once did. For individuals born after 1960, their learning culture has become a TV, Simulations, and Games learning culture. That is why,...
Every business strategy works best when a plan has been put in place first. Manufacturing training is no different. In order to implement a successful manufacturing training program you must first focus in on the management approach you will use and then work from there.
The May 31 blog certainly unleashed additional comments from individuals who had experienced similar employment hurdles or had observed “degree bias.” I’ll quote from a few, putting my edits in quotes: “My boss promised me a promotion but the administrative officer informed me that no such promotion would ever be forthcoming because I lacked a degree in music. ‘But I have been doing this job for five years,’ I argued. ‘And you...
Appearing in “The Commercial Appeal” of Memphis, TN this week was a most interesting column by Robert J. Samuelson. As a former educator, I found it unusually edifying and I urge you to read it. Samuelson’s initial paragraph serves as an introduction: The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good. It looms as the...
The recent spike in job openings and the dip in unemployment rates offers new hope for the once struggling manufacturing industry. The next issue to tackle is that of baby boomer retirement. With budgets still tight and baby boomers nearing retirement with each passing day, manufacturers must invest in industrial training to preserve the knowledge that will be lost when this experienced generation leaves the workforce. So what are some industrial skills...