Education vs. Training vs. Learning
| posted by Steve RosenbaumI was once told that there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t. Anyway, I’ve heard the discussion a lot about the different between education, training and learning. Some see sharp distinctions and other see them as the same.
I remember someone recoiling at the idea of being a training department. “You train dogs not people.” To that I always say, “Do you want your surgeon to be well trained or well educated?”
It’s seems like the academic world is more focused on education and the corporate world is more focused on training. You are statements like, “the purpose of an education is to become a critical thinker and well rounded.” “The purpose of training is change what participants will be able to do after the training is over.” Maybe it’s the difference between knowledge acquisition and skill development.
In schools, paper and pencil tests are mainstays. Standardized tests which are mostly about knowledge acquisition and comprehension seem to be the level of measurement. In a corporate environment, those tests are usually meaningless. It’s more the rule than the norm that doing well on a test indicates results on the job.
So to sort all this out, you often see the word Learning substituted for both education and training. Think about the advent of the Chief Learning Officer or Elearning, etc. I look at learning as something that a student or participant does. It’s not what the instructor does. It’s good in a sense that it doesn’t suggest a particular approach or methodology.
What do I use or prefer? I tend to use them all and use them interchangeably. I actually don’t think is a very productive argument. When people argue about terms, I often say let’s just pick something or mayble make something up. How about calling it ”Bob?”
