About Learning and Training, notes from the Field

For the last 2 years I have spent most of my working time as Microsoft Certified Trainer: delivering Training. The Microsoft 365 Tracks, The Azure Tracks and the Security Tracks.

That means that I have spent a lot of time with IT Professionals in the field. I think it is very disturbing to notice that the Skills Gap is still humongous. In general I am disappointed in the skills level of many of my students. Let me be clear here, the students are not to blame, well, maybe a little. Employers are. And by doing so organizations have a hard time of being effective with their Information Technologies (“Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things”), leaving lots of money on the table. While crying that it is all too expensive, not agile enough, not secure enough.

There is truly an abundance of free learning resources available, the tech community is doing an amazing job in publishing all kinds of great content. And yet that does not make a difference. Only a hand full of people are capable (and willing) to have the discipline to absorb that content. The crazy ones like me, spending at least 20 hours a week just reading that stuff and more importantly, playing around with it. Luckily, now that covid is no longer that big a threat, all sort of community events are happening again. All of these efforts are targeted at the individual IT Professional, the active folks. Dear tech community, keep up the good work! It is so valuable and so much appreciated.

Vendors also promote all kinds of free trainings for their paying customers (so how free is it? You already paid for it). I think that is tricky because it lacks (financial) commitment. I have been delivering some 20 sponsored trainings lately. No-show rates are as high as 50%. And then 50% of participants who made it are either mis-informed or hardly prepared. Dear vendors, offerings like that make you look good but is it effective?

Which brings me to the difference between learning and training. I learned to count to 100 and I know what a push-up is. Please, do not ask me to do 100 push-ups. During a 4-day training students will spend half of the time doing Labs, doing the work, making their hands dirty. That is why it is called training. Knowing how to do something is just not good enough (learning), being able to do something is way more relevant (training). A week ago I made a proposal for two 4-day trainings, the first response was if I could deliver it in 5 days total because of budget. My response was I’d rather make it two 5-day trainings, if they want their people to get trained. I could deliver the content in 1 day but probably no one will listen fast enough.

It is amazing to see that in my 25 years of being a trainer, organizations are still on the level that they have their IT managed by a bunch of people that just “like to work with computers”. I’ve done a lot of pre-sales consultancy and I always put training on the table: “no time, no budget” but this project needs to move forward. Huh?

Organizations, employers, managers, your daily operations rely heavily on IT, please take the management of that more serious. There is definitely no cost reduction in not sending your IT Staff to sit in a training a couple of weeks per year, on the contrary. Ask yourself: “What is the cost of NOT doing it?”. If you want, I can assist you in making that Business Case. The Value of your IT Investments is only as Big as you Train your Users.

A decent training should be followed by taking a Certification Exam. Not that a Certification makes a good Professional (like having a driver license does not make you a good chauffeur). This is especially so for organizations delivering IT Services. I have had plenty of students in classes working for Managed Service Providers; if I would outsource my IT, or even part of my IT, to an MSP, I would require that the people who get access to my environment are at least Certified for the tasks the need to accomplish. I do not pay for services executed by non-qualified staff. Sorry.

Most Training providers offer their training both in-person and remote (online). Of course covid had a huge impact on the increase in online training. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but do not underestimate the power and added value of in-person, old fashioned, classroom-led training. To add to that, preferably not an in-company-one-customer only training. Having multiple breed of people and organizations together for a couple of days is enlightening and inspiring. Suffer the labor of the Labs together. Blood, sweat and tears. And fun! That may imply some extra T&E but trust me, there will be a return on that investment.

Finally, an apology is in place for all those who do not fit what I described here. Keep on going! You’re doing great!

Happy Training!