I don't want to say that training is worthless. I think that everyone involved has really good intentions. Management creates the program thinking that their money is well-spent on people, its "greatest asset." The instructors think that they have really prepared something interesting for the class. And the young staff are all excited to GET PAID for going to class. But somehow, it just doesn't work out quite right.

Perhaps the greatest reason is that some things just can't be taught. My Dad used to always tell me that college teaches you how to learn, but it doesn't necessarily prepare you for any specific tasks. Now, accounting is a rather applied study that does yield some general base knowledge, but there is still a lot to learn once work starts.

I have heard that Japanese companies give rather extensive training for new-hires. Some say that this 1)makes up for the lack of applied learning in college and 2)is evidence of the long-term committment between employee and employer. Personally, I think some of these three-week or three-month new-hire sessions serve more as indoctrination that formal learning.

On-going training seems to be the same. I just had a three hour course on how to use the latest version of LotusNotes, our email/news/research software. I am sure that I took a couple pieces of advice out of the course, but I might have had better luck just looking at the software myself.

I always wonder what people learn in these classes for advanced Word or Excel or even better, The Internet. The course can really only show you how to learn to use the tools, but the actual learning is on-going. You just gotta click around a little bit and get really good at using the magical "undo" button. After all, there are at least three ways to do everything anyway: menu, icon/button, and right-click. Just play around with the stuff and learn as you go.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to sign up for new courses which teach me how to do benefit plan audits, physical inventory counts, manage my time, etc. I always get something out of it, but it is just not the same as just doing it. I guess I am a firm believer in on-the-job training. Cheers.