Jack,
Good luck! I've been faced with a similar task at a small company for the
past two years.
Here are some definitions I've seen in the past which draw a distinction
between training and education. They are based on the response we are
preparing someone to make. If the response is prefigured, that is, if what
is to be done has been determined in advance and what is wanted is for the
person being trained to carry out this prefigured course of action, that
is training. If the response must be configured, that is, if one must
figure out what to do instead of simply doing what others figured out,
that is education. This distinction, by the way, was presented by Fred
Nickols (fnickols@ets.org) on another list (change@mindspring.com).
Another common distinction which I have seen is that training is what we
do at work or in public seminars, education is what we do in schools and
colleges. I prefer that distinction because it doesn't necessarily
differentiate between outcomes. As far as I'm concerned, both training
and education have the same goals:
1. teach new knowledge/skills or
2. enhance existing knowledge/skills or
3. correct inappropriate performance/behavior or
4. change attitudes.
As for development, I consider that to be inherent in both training and
education. Whether we're training/educating someone to do their current
job or the next job, we're developing them as people when we meet any of
the four goals I stated above.
I wish I could provide insite on how to develop shared meaning among your
teammates. The members of my team (outside my department) insist that I'm
the training expert and their role is to rubber stamp what I want to do.
So far, I haven't figured out how to convince them otherwise.
Jay Spitulnik
Training Manager
spitulni@yankee.com