Set them Up For Success Not Failure

I thought I’d share something about work today.

I remember that one of my New Year resolutions was to start working again? 

I can officially say that this resolution has a solid tick next to it now. Yipeee!

Every second Friday for eight weeks I pay a 5 hour visit to one of my clients (a world renowned chocolate maker ). During these visits I facilitate (or rather guide) an *RPL  session for 19 staff members who work the production line. I’m taking these learners through a Food and Beverage qualification which the client has initiated as part of their staff skills development plan.

I’m talking about them today because there is a certain lady in my class (Phumla) whose resilience amazes me. She’s was born somewhere in the fifties and has never had formal schooling. Any writing and reading skills she has are the result of self teaching. I watch her every Friday struggle through the sessions and I find this both heartbreaking and motivating. It breaks my heart that she has been put in a program without someone really assessing her learning needs. An immediate remedy would be to assign a mentor to help her through the program but despite my many requests none is forthcoming. I don’t think the coordinators appreciate how easy is it to extinguish that little flame of hope and desire some people have for learning if they have been out of school for a long time. Most become disheartened when they realize how much commitment goes into acquiring a new disciple (i.e. learning to learn). 

This is where I wish learning in the workplace was more about the people and less about the bottom line. As good as idea as it is, the reality is that most companies are just putting people through training for the tax  incentive.

Source

All that being said, I have never met someone that possesses more determination or fighting spirit as does Phumla. Away from our contact sessions, she finds it impossible to read and interpret the amount of content she has to cover. Yet every week she pitches up having resourcefully found her way through significant amounts of it (despite the fact that most is copied word for word from her learning material or additional resources). 

I’m afraid at the end she will not make it through the programme, not because she didn’t put everything she has in her work but because the system has failed her. Whatever diagnostic assessment was done that resulted in her attending this class had it wrong…..and sadly, the wheels of bureaucracy turn far too slowly to help this one diligent student. 

Why do we set people up for failure? This is the one time where truly one can see that in our good intentions we can do more harm than good.

I hope when the time comes I will be fit for the job in that I help her recognize the nuggets she has acquired by attending the program and put them to further use. Phumla is definite proof that learning is a lifelong and continuous process and we who are in the field have a responsibility. Our responsibility is to nurture the desire to grow and learn when we see it because for the Phumla’s of this world, this is a lifeline in a long barren stretch of road.

*RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning). This is basically a learning program where you are assessed based on previous work experience in order to formalize it into a qualification.