Immersive Learning

The Benefits of Apprenticeship

Corporate training often omits a crucial step in learning: practice. Training in a classroom or on a computer usually focuses on delivering information. The theory is: Tell people what they should do, and they will do it. But to perform well, you need to know what to do and how to do it. The only way to master the “how” is through practice. The old-fashioned apprenticeship system of learning emphasized the how and focused on doing. Learners would watch a mentor perform skills and imitate what they saw, practicing while the mentor offered immediate feedback. Apprenticeship isn’t practical today. Sales trainees cannot “practice” on potential clients, for instance. Even if a senior rep accompanies a new salesperson on a call, the mentor can’t provide feedback until the interaction is over.

To train large numbers of people, corporations usually gather trainees in a classroom for “lectures, discussion, reading, demonstration and sometimes practice, to help people learn en masse.” E-learning, instruction via computer, made training available to more people, including those who weren’t physically present. But it didn’t improve performances. ...