Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Thoughts from the field: Training a business major to run AutoCAD

Just got back from more fieldwork in Western Wisconsin, where I and a member of the research team hung out at the local community college, 4-year university, and lots of factories.  One of the enduring impressions of my time there was an interview and shop floor tour with the Director of Tooling at a mid-size company that made mostly automotive parts.  Upon answering my question about the applicant pool for recent openings, he bemoaned the fact that the local community college graduated so few students in his area (i.e., tool and die), but really, what he needed was people with a strong work ethic, a good head on their shoulders, and a willingness to learn.  This was largely due to the fact that they had to train people anyways on their own machinery and in-house processes.  In fact, he noted that sometimes experience (whether on the job or in school) was a negative, as this meant people came into the company with ideas about how things should be done.  In other words, a complete newbie could be molded to fit the organizational culture and workflow.

This was clear when he mentioned that two recent hires were business majors looking for work, and who were hired to do design work, mostly using AutoCAD software.  They trained the new hires to use it and after a couple of months they were off and running.  Sure, it would have been ideal to not have to spend the time doing that training, but the guy I was talking to observed that the skills and aptitudes that got these people through college - hard work, good reasoning abilities, willingness to learn - were in the long run more valuable than an abridged training period. 

While we have many results and findings coming out from this study, this one is rising to the top because we're hearing it across the state and across sectors.  Since our focus is on how classroom teaching and training programs can be designed to meet the needs of both employers and educators, the question becomes one of how to leverage the expertise and insights from instructional designers (especially in the learning sciences, and also in STEM education circles) to help people design their curricula and organize their classrooms.  But, it also points to the fact that, because these aptitudes are learnt from childhood and strongly molded in the home and community, that the answers to these issues are not solely to be found in our schools, colleges, or universities.

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