Why some infection control training doesn't work...
- and click here to find out why DC Solutions training does work!
Across the country, thousands of pounds are spent on training - without changing the way people work. Instead, they carry on making the same basic mistakes, and don't follow procedures. Why is this?
We think there are a number of reasons -
Classrooms are threatening places
Many people have bad memories of school - they associate it with exam disappointments, or being up against people who seemed brighter and cleverer than them. So when they're asked to sit in a room or lecture theatre and listen to someone telling them what to do, it just seems like the clock's being rolled back. With the best will in the world, it's really difficult to take things in.
Computers aren't everyone's cup of tea
You might think that the whole world lives online these days, and that no-one so much as picks up a pen or pencil, or reads a book or newspaper. But it's not so - there are many people who don't use a computer. They're still able to live their lives perfectly happily, working with paper every day of their lives.
So ask them to go through training on a computer and they've first got to come to terms with a blinking, unfeeling machine that wants to know logins and passwords - and that's before you even get to the stuff you're meant to be learning! How difficult do you want to make it?!
Not everyone likes groups
Some people really like working in groups, and get a buzz from the interaction - but if you don't, then you're likely to keep your head down and not take part. It might be because you think you don't know the right answer, or you're worried you'll say the wrong thing. It might be because you don't want to look clever. Or it might be because you're just a bit shy.
Whatever the reason, people just work differently on their own. So while you may think that training lots of people at a time makes good economic sense, if the training doesn't work then it's money wasted.
Relevance to 'my' job
Learning something as a concept is all very well - but at some point it has to be applied to someone's real-life job. If the training doesn't result in changing what a trainee does from day to day, then it hasn't worked.
Many people find it hard to apply concepts. Perhaps their job seems different from what was taught. Or maybe they think there's a reason why it doesn't apply to them. Or maybe their brains just don't work that way.
Whatever the reason, the more the training is rooted in what they actually do, the easier they're going to find it to apply.