Finding the right balance when providing training.
 Training provision will always be made up of at least two ingredients: Subject matter expertise and knowledge in pedagogic issues. Concentrating on one and neglecting the other would inevitably lead to an imbalance and by consequence an ineffective training provision.
If the imbalance tilts towards subject matter, you run the risk of losing your business because you are weak when it comes to teach the subject. If on the other hand your scale leans toward pedagogy to the detriment of subject matter, then you risk of failing because your clients are expecting you of teaching some sort of subject matter!
Finding the right balance does not mean that you need to have a 50/50 division in your resources, budget, personnel, etc. It however means that the two components need to be in harmony. The subject matter delivered must be of excellent quality, and the delivery vehicle must be effective, motivating, interesting, and in today’s environment also innovative.
How does this relate to ATM training?
ATM training is highly specialised and is delivered to a specialised and professional workforce. Finding people who have enough knowledge and credibility to teach ATM related subjects is very difficult. So the training academy’s prestige lies in having a pool of highly credible and knowledgeable persons ready to give training in its name.
Moreover, with budgetary constraints, many training academies have taken a strategic decision to concentrate their shrinking budgets into its core business, i.e. hiring these prestigious persons to enable the organisation to mark itself from other organisations with the same vocation but with less qualitatively apt academic personnel. This strategic decision has most often turned out to be the right one.
However, what about the delivering vehicle? What would Michael Schumacher be without a very fast car?
An ATM training centre needs to have expertise in the fields of ATM training and it needs to teach it. Its core business lies in providing training in ATM fields [and not solely in "ATM fields" as some have defined it]. Therefore in taking the strategic decision of concentrating on the core business, some have failed to identify a part of this core business – the training provision.
What does this training provision part entail?
There are a few items within the scope of the training provision part of the core business. Some of these are:
- Personnel who support the training academy by supporting the subject matter experts in developing their training content and by helping them in training delivery techniques.
- Research and development on new training and educational techniques which fit the changing environment and the changing market [innovation].
- The budgeting for and the use of the appropriate technology which supports the training delivery.
- Benchmarking with others in the training / education arena, who are not necessarily in the same subject matter field and who are perhaps more budgetary challenged [this is where often innovation takes place].
The training academies who have concentrated their strategy around their core business are not wrong. However, they need to incorporate the training provision within their definition of core business.Â
This will in turn bring a right balance between subject matter expertise and the pedagogical elements. As we have seen, what should be sought is not a 50/50 balance. It is more like the balance between food and spices in tasteful recipes. Â
However, even if the spices are used in low quantities, it is not so long ago that empires thrived from and fought fiercely to control their supremacy in the spice market!
