Employee upskilling | Performance is the learning destination - not just skills

Steve Dineen, Founder & President, Fuse

Courses have long been the default for corporate learning departments looking to plug skills gaps, but herein lies a fundamental problem: chasing skills through the delivery of courses alone is futile.

Learners can certainly acquire knowledge at training courses, no-one is denying that. The problem is courses don’t enable learners to instantly apply that knowledge in context - and so they don’t support skill development. It’s a point that highlights a key distinction: simply having knowledge does not denote the acquisition of a skill.

Think of it this way: a student who studies David Beckham - a professional athlete who has spent years practising and honing his skill - will not be able to bend a free-kick with the same level of accuracy just because they’ve understood what has been explained to them in a course.