Mode Four: Just-In-Time Programs
Technology has made this fourth mode of employee development suddenly quite viable, though, from an historical perspective, it is the oldest mode of training and education. We need only look back to a time when just-in-time employee development was known as apprenticeship. A young man or woman would apprentice with a master craftsman and learn by doing prior to being admitted to the craft guild. At first, the apprentice would be given menial tasks to accomplish, such as sweeping the floor. The apprentice would then be given increasingly challenging tasks that began to relate directly to the craft for which he was being trained.
There were often an increasingly difficult and demanding set of tasks that the apprentice had to perform before becoming a journeyman and eventually a master craftsman. The apprentice, for instance, might be given a block of wood to cut and sand to perfection or he might be required to prepare a particular cream sauce or soufflé before being admitted to the guild. This just-in-time learning was powerful and effective, not only because the apprentice learned a new skill or acquired new knowledge precisely at the point when he needed it, but also because the learning occurred within the context of trust and tradition. The master craftsman was not simply a trainer or educator; the master exemplified values and a lifestyle the apprentice hoped to emulate. This is an important lesson in the design of employee development programs. The interpersonal element must not be ignored. Training and education require trust and a sense of tradition.
In more recent years, we find the use of just in time education and training in organizations that hire new employees whom they expect can hit the ground running with little need for any orientation or education. Whatever new skills and knowledge an employee needs can be acquired by simply asking the advice of more senior members of the organization, by reading an instruction manual, or by learning from experience. While most large organizations commit time and money to employee development programs, it is important to recognize that the vast majority of organizations in our contemporary society are too small or financially strapped to offer much in the way of employee development. They can’t afford formal training programs nor are such programs appropriate. The leaders of these closely held organizations either provide no training or education, or they turn to some form of apprenticeship and find ways to make this just-in-time model work in their own organization.
