It takes time to apply new knowledge and skills in the workplace. Furthermore, learning is more than a one-time event.
Centriq is committed to helping our students successfully transfer new training to their job. We have brainstormed several ideas to guide students in this process.
The Post Course Learning Activities Checklist provides several suggestions of things to do within days, weeks, and months of returning to your workplace.Some examples:
- Developing an Action Plan with goals, action steps, success criteria, timeframe, and resources. See an example below.
- Creating an Infographic or Job Aid to help with knowledge retention and increase the likelihood of workplace transfer. See an example below. You can create this on any topic or process.
- Reading related Blogs for insightful articles, great tips, additional resources, and other helpful materials. For example, these blog posts about how to prepare and study for different IT certifications.
The whole idea of Learning Transfer is for students to:
- Validate training by successfully applying a new skill (or tip, trick, “golden nugget”, etc.) learned in class to complete existing work tasks on the job more efficiently,
- Sustain learned knowledge in the workplace through increased confidence/competence in using the software (including experimenting and troubleshooting), improved job performance (quantity, quality, etc.), and any other direct or indirect results such as opportunities to create new processes or documents
- Reflect on learning and promote continued learning!
Below is a testimonial from a recent student, Linda Allison, Project Coordinator, AMC. Linda recently took Excel classes from Centriq. Here she describes how she successfully transferred her learning to her job.
“I have used the ‘ifs’ formulas for different budget tracking projects. I track the spending for a large project and that has been a lifesaver! I can enter my data and then have a short and sweet report to send to my boss.”
“I am constantly looking for an Excel formula to make a report efficient. I have never used Excel for reporting so this is all so new and exciting for me. I love how my boss can come to me and I can pop up a report and give him a high-level look. It has taken time but I am getting there.”
Students who complete Microsoft Office classes at Centriq should look for a file titled Post Course Learning Transfer To-Do in the list of data files they can download. They can then use this checklist of helpful activities to help focus on workplace transfer and continued learning.