Monday, October 20, 2014
Training and the Millennial Generation
Occupational Health & Safety: If you haven't noticed, the workforce is increasingly growing with people of the millennial generation. People like me; that's right, I'm a millennial. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, millennials represent 36% of the U.S. workforce and will represent 75% by the year 2025.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I’m having trouble not thinking about something I’ve been hyper aware of in job postings lately, “Experience required.” Sometimes this phrase is accompanied by a number of some kind, 1-2, or 2-3, or 5…so on and so forth. But I can’t help but wonder, how can I get experience if nobody is willing to give it to me? If I’m applying for an entry level position, is it really fair to require me to have experience in this field or position already? What’s even more frustrating, is when you apply for this position and someone thinks you’re over qualified so they pass on you, do all of those summer jobs count, and if so are they too little or too much? I’ve been on both sides of that coin. It just seems like there’s a very fine line, or grey area, and I understand that not all employers are willing to take a risk on Millennials like myself, but at some point they won’t have a choice. In my opinion, the risk really isn’t that high, you can pay me less than somehow 10 years my elder, and the chances are, with the student loan debt I’ve acquired I probably want it more. I agree with the author that embracing the use of on the job training, or technology based training forums can be incredibly useful with my generation. I’m much better at retaining a skill when I can practice it, having said that I was provided access to some really great online training resources when I was Cirque and they were incredibly helpful. They were incredible helpful, with interactive videos, illustrations and even quizzes, a bit more than a book or powerpoint sometimes has to offer. Hopefully our generation can break this stigma, establish a stronger foot-hold and prove our worth…and soon.
I would like to address the "Tips for Training Millennials" section.
1. Not everyone has access to a computer, therefore eLearning does nothing for them. It would still be an inconvenient part of their day that they would have to schedule out to learn some skills from a computer that they could just be sitting in a classroom for and learning from a real teacher who they can ask questions to. I, for one, much prefer in person because I will sometimes forget to do online things because it isn't really on my radar as important or urgent if there isn't a set time for it.
2. I completely disagree with this. Video learning is the worst. You can't stop a video and ask the people in the video a question. Videos are not more engaging than real teachers. In fact, I usually fall asleep during videos in class, as I'm sure a lot of people who have busy schedules and low sleep time do. Videos are not better.
3. This is actually the truth.
4. Again: Not everyone has internet readily accessible to them all the time. I don't have an intelligent phone, and I don't have a data plan for my laptop.
5. This is only partially true. There is much to be said about giving us the our wants, but we should also learn the old ways. There is a reason that we learn history. We need to learn from the past. You never know when a process they used in the past will show up again in the future. The personnel that you have employed at that point may not be familiar with it, and then you are stuck with a bunch of useless people.
Post a Comment