How education needs to change and why the current and future workforce needs to take notice

My father is a retired Professor of Medicine with 40 years’ experience in acute and general medicine and intensive care that has spanned the UK and Australia. I once asked him what attributes he thought distinguished a great doctor from a competent one. His reply, based on those colleagues and bosses who had most inspired him, included two basic groups of attributes.

The first is humanity – a genuine and natural ability to care and feel empathy for others with the capability to understand, have patience and deliver a personal touch: “Some of this you can teach didactically, much more can be inspired by positive role modelling in clinical practice, but a sense of humanity is innate to one’s personality”.

The second group of aptitudes comprises those of the intellect: “Breadth and depth of scientific and medical knowledge is fundamental and this can (usually) be taught, given a certain level of intelligence and memory capacity in the learner. In addition, ?are instinct and experience, neither of which depends on formal teaching. Instinct is interesting: the best doctors can sniff a problem when others cannot, can think laterally and imaginatively as well in teasing out diagnoses and have unbendingly inquisitive minds, never satisfied with partially answered questions. Some of these aptitudes can be taught Son, some will always be intuitive, but little will be achieved without clinical experience. Experience brings the ability to recognise and diagnose diseases because you have seen them before, probably many times and with considerable subtle variation – allowing ‘pattern-recognition’ if you like”.

The importance of mentorship, role-models and an apprenticeship-type of experiential learning are recurrent themes in my Dad’s answer.?A newly qualified doctor spending a couple of years shadowing a senior physician in a busy clinical setting (basically, an apprenticeship) could arguably learn to deal with practical situations quicker and better than simply spending hours ?poring over a textbook. This is not to belittle or marginalise the need for theoretical learning but rather to emphasise the parallel importance of practical experience - a textbook does not allow for nuances in dealing with people under possibly dynamic and individual circumstances. And why should this paradigm be confined to medical education; isn’t it possible that the same principles be usefully applied to many other disciplines and professions?

So, what does this have to do with Professional Bodies and Peak Associations? I would like to suggest that our approach to education in Professional Bodies and Peak Associations should be more practically focused with more reliance on apprenticeship-like guidance from highly experienced mentors. Theory and the acquisition of knowledge from books and didactic teaching are an essential component to rounded education but are complemented immeasurably by hands-on experience and mentoring from people who have made mistakes as well as having their fair share of success. Learning from experience can potentially navigate a quicker path to the ‘wins’ while, hopefully, avoiding those costly mistakes.?

I think Professional Bodies and Peak Associations have recently lost their way to an extent with Members regularly questioning the value of paying annual subscription fees. However, I think that organisations can turn this apathetic tide and a refreshed approach to education could have a fundamental role to play in achieving this. We are ?uniquely placed to connect those with experience with those starting their careers and mentoring could be pivotal in planning education and training. However, there is also a need for more guided and structured formal education with discreet learning modules, time limits and a structured framework of formative assessment. An important part of this vision is the belief that experienced professionals (Members themselves) can play a central role in realising these educational advances even though they may not have formal teaching qualifications or an academic background themselves.

According to the Australian College of Applied Psychology five to seven career changes in a lifetime is the new average for Australian workers. Professional Bodies and Peak Associations often specify academic degrees as a requirement for entry to their programs and sometimes even mandate specific subjects within those degrees. If the current pattern of changing career direction multiple times continues to be the norm then it will simply be impossible (and financially unviable) for most to commence or return repeatedly to Higher Education. It follows that Professional Bodies and Peak Associations should explore ways of reducing barriers to career path entry .

In a competitive world career progression for the individual is fundamentally dependent on education and training but there is ?another, corporate, side to consider. The argument for support from an employer for an employee’s professional development becomes more compelling if there is a visible quid pro quo for that support – put simply, this means this means showing that the accrued individual learning has an obvious positive impact for the corporation.

People lead busy lives - often juggling multiple work and family commitments – and the challenge for education providers is to offer opportunities for continuing education for individuals experiencing these conflicting pressures. There are several ways to approach this problem; one is online, easy-to-consume learning modules and another is to optimise experiential learning with the appropriate use of mentors and positive role models in the working environment.

In many ways, education (in its broad sense) remains one of the last bastions of tradition but, for some time, many have been asking for progressive change in education and they should not continue to be ignored. Professional Bodies and Peak Associations understand their Members and the professions they serve. They also have an easily accessible network of experienced Members to call upon for assistance in mentoring and other educational roles and, if these human assets are harnessed optimally, our organisations should be able to deliver first-class education and training to meet the present and future demands of our Members.

At IPWEA, the organisation I lead, we have created a new educational pathway for asset management professionals that has no barriers to entry. It is taught by experienced practitioners, has practical outcomes and assessments, and can lead to an internationally recognised qualification.

Find out more: www.ipwea.org

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