Learning vs. Training

It's important to understand the difference between learning and training. Of course they are inextricably linked, but they are unique aspects of any educational process. Training is the giving of information and knowledge, through speech, the written word or other methods of demonstration in a manner that instructs the trainee. Learning is the process of absorbing that information in order to increase skills and abilities and make use of it under a variety of contexts. Whatever the goals, the quality of the learning will rely largely on the quality of the training, and so the role of trainer is very important as it can have a huge effect on the outcome Let's look at the characteristics of each, and see what makes an e-learning environment work.

The characteristics of learning

As   mentioned   above,   learning   is   the   process   of absorbing information and retaining it with the goal of increasing skills and abilities in order to achieve goals - but it's more than that. Learning is what we go through when we want to be equipped for non-specific and unexpected  situations  and  the  two  are  not  mutually exclusive. While you do learn to do something specific, you are also inadvertently equipped with the knowledge and/or skills to face future challenges. In essence, learning is all about equipping a person to tackle not just today's issues, but preparing him/her to creatively come up with ways to tackle tomorrow's issues.

The characteristics of training

Training on the other hand focuses more on the development of new skills or skill sets that will be used. Training is the process each new employee goes through when joining a company to learn how to carry out the day-to-day  operations,   know  how  their   department works  and  how  job-specific  tools  operate  in  order  to carry  out  their  responsibilities.  In  essence,  through
of a course for the leatraining, we are not looking to reshape the behavior of an individual rather the point is to teach the employee or learner how things are done so that they can then carry out a process on their own.

Ideally, an e-learning environment will utilize both learning and training principles throughout its curriculum. This allows instructors/trainers to provide their    learners    with    the    tools    to    tackle    current issues, develop    life-long    skills,    improve    on    their problem-solving skills and utilize resources to the best of their ability.
E-learning in education vs. corporate sector
E-learning allows both students and business executives to learn anywhere and at any time. You can learn from virtually any place with a computer or mobile device and internet connection, meaning you can study from home, on vacation or in your break.  But  e-learning  is  more than about convenience and there are fundamental differences between e-learning in the corporate sector and in education.

What happens in the corporate environment?

The role of corporate training is to ensure an employee has the knowledge and skills to undertake a specific operation to enable an organization to continue to operate. Fundamentally, corporate training is centered on knowledge transfer. For example, conferences and workshops   are   an   essential   yet   expensive   part   of business and e-learning makes it affordable and efficient
- sales people, for instance, can receive their training on new products and sales strategies online. E-learning can be translated to lower costs to deliver training in a shorter period of time, especially when employees are spread worldwide.

Corporate education however adds another dimension and depth to training by involving learners as participants in generating new knowledge that assists an organization to develop and evolve.

The main characteristics of corporate learning are:

Fast-paced: Enterprise learning is mostly "fast paced" because   "time   is   money"   in   the   corporate   world. Training needs to be delivered in as short a time frame as possible with maximum results.

Career-related: Enterprise learning helps employees gain new skills to advance their careers inside the company. Enterprise LMSs have additional modules to facilitate that process.

Benefits organization: Enterprise learning focuses mainly on pragmatic issues with immediate benefits for the organization rather than just individual benefit. Ultimately training is required for the organization to function correctly, and corporate education in order for it to evolve and develop.

Training vs. Education: Enterprise is mostly focused on training, while education is mostly about learning though "igniting curiosity" (check out this related post on    ‘ Le arning    through    Curiosity’  ).   Training    usually means the act of being prepared for something, of being taught  or  learning  a  particular  skill  and  practicing  it until the required standard is reached. This has obvious practical implications for the workplace Return  on  investment: An  enterprise  needs  to  be able to calculate the ROI of its learning investment. In an educational context this ROI is difficult to calculate and usually the effects of learning take years to show.

What happens in educational institutes?

In comparison with corporate learning, learning in the education   sector   focuses   primarily   on   knowledge transfer and not on training i.e. in education we mainly strive to learn things with global scope (e.g. a subject such  as  mathematics)  whilst  corporate  e-learning  is more focused on business needs (e.g. new recruit induction). The word education means to gain general theoretical knowledge and this may or may not involve learning how to do any specific practical work, tasks or skills. Please note that there is some overlap and that the  word  ‘education’  can  also  refer  to  a  process  of training or receiving tuition. For example, basic training in   a   field   such   as   health   services   is   usually   a combination of theoretical, educational and practical learning skills.

Convergence

Corporate e-learning professionals can learn from academic e-learning initiatives and vice versa, and we 

are currently seeing a convergence of academic and corporate e-learning needs. For example, the academic space is starting to gravitate towards incorporating corporate methods in the classroom on how certain topics are taught. And on the corporate side they’re shifting the model of utilizing technologies in a way that supports the traditional classroom of academics especially with regards to blending technologies.

There is obvious overlap: mobile learning for example is becoming increasingly popular with learners having one if  not  more  mobile  devices  in  their  possession  and taking these devices to school or work.   Learners have access to the internet and social networks via these mobile devices so all the technologies required to gather information,   create   content   and   communicate   with other people are readily available and naturally create an environment conducive to learning. Currently both the  education and corporate  sectors are  struggling  to answer the exact same questions: how do we use these for learning?  How do instructional design, and teaching methodologies and theories apply to delivering content via mobile devices? It’s only natural for knowledge to be shared across the table.