This isn’t the first time I’ve met someone who discounts professional development and learning. When I chose the Institute of Capital Markets instead of teaching at a reputed management institute, my peers rejected my choice. Executive development programs in finance, as they were called in management institutions, stuck to the lowest comment denominator of “finance for non-finance executives” in the 1980s and ran only for the revenue they brought in. Choosing it as a career was an infrastructure. But I persisted in my love of the unusual choice. I don’t regret it in the slightest, and most of what I know today comes from the training of professionals I’ve worked with all my life. There is merit in figuring out what matters to those who must roll up their sleeves and accomplish a task. Theory alone will not help in such cases.
In my early days at the institute, cynics said that those who were not needed on the job were deputed to a training program. Little did he know that those were the days when policy makers wanted to know how scams happen in the stock market; The treasurer of the PSU bank wanted to know how government bonds were traded; And hundreds of people learned to write a research report, establish an investment policy, and operate a mutual fund in compliance with newly introduced regulations.
In the late 1990s when the equity market was in turmoil, investment industry leaders opted to educate their distributors and introduce them to equity funds as an alternative. Gone are the times when assured comeback ideas ruled popular thought. In the 25 years since then, I can name hundreds of independent financial professionals who have added thousands of homes to equity. Investment. Learning has the power to change lives. The firm I founded is dedicated to this purpose, not because there is merit in formal learning on the job; But because there are immense benefits in the group in which it is achieved.
First, we can get lost trying to figure out what to learn. If it was hard before, the internet just made it harder. as a firm that offers online learningWe have carefully followed developments in the self-learning space. People chose better when structured schedules were set for them, leaving them to make their own choices. Research also shows that many people stop their online lessons before they make any significant progress. Enrollments may be higher, but the state of completion remains poor. The primary reasons are relevance and choice. People gave up when they found that they had chosen the wrong path; Or they chose badly because there was too much on offer. However, those who have continued and completed their course provide highly encouraging feedback. They achieved better career and professional progress, changed jobs or professions easily, and negotiated better income for themselves.
Second, it is not the rigor of the learning program that engages the learner; Relevance tops that list. My argument with my dismissed relative was that he had filled himself with a variety of information. For each subject of mastery he claimed to have mastered, I patiently listed him and described what and how he studied. Every single area of ​​his “expertise” remained unfinished, not because he was not honest; But because he didn’t get any peer guidance on what was relevant. Since they lacked clarity on the questions to be asked, their answers remained confused. He disliked this part of our argument, but I had enough ammunition to tell me that he had missed more important books, courses, lessons, or experts, as he liked to call them. on formal Work Learning provides great benefits of relevance. Course content is driven by the needs of the role defined by business leaders, and multiple minds work at every level, including the classroom, to ensure that it is relevant. Those who don’t know should try talking to an audience of working professionals about things that have little application value.
Third, a group setting enables peer interaction and discussion which is invaluable to the learner and teacher. Synchronous and asynchronous learning are much debated topics in the modern technologically interconnected world. The content is easy to view, verify, read, learn and consume on an ongoing basis. But research on learning establishes that asynchronous learning, where the learner engages at his own convenience, can be ineffective. Learners lose motivation, may misinterpret theories, or draw incomplete conclusions. Even in the online world, engagement with fellow learners and teachers enhances the quality of learning to many levels. Physical classrooms and online learning co-existed to facilitate such interactions before Covid hit; In the post-Covid era, video conferencing and problem solving in a group is the key to learner engagement. Despite my relative’s insistence, there is little evidence that learning can remain a solitary endeavor and be effective.
Fourth, rewards drive effort. When formal education is combined with identifiable benefits, it prompts the learner to compete, compare, and complete practice. From ranks and rewards in schools to incentives and promotions on the job, evidence shows that learners are motivated by the goals they set for themselves. When the mutual fund industry introduced a mandatory certification for all distributors, there could be doubts that this would not work. With the decision to link commissions for the completion of certification, the demand for training, learning and the completion of examinations increased.
My relative argued that these rules are easily bent in India. I remember my experience in Patna in 2003. There was a large group of over a hundred distributors in my class. Abaj had the news that the exam for that day was canceled due to cheating. I told my class that I would train them only if they promised to write the exam honestly when it was their turn. I would teach them what they needed to know. Not only did that class learn, but more than 90% of them passed the exam without any cheating. It is an experience that neither I nor my trainees in Patna have forgotten. My relative simply doesn’t know the power of a community that chooses to learn.
(The author is chairperson of the Center for Investment Education and learn)