JACK GOES TO TRAINING . . . (CONCLUSION)
“Get up. Get up, you’re going to be late for the training!”
“Huh,” grunted Jack. “What time is it?”
“It’s 7:30 and you have to go downtown to the training center today, remember?” said his wife.
Wow, what a dream, thought Jack, feeling a little nervous as he walked up the steps of the training center. The training room was not at all like a schoolroom. No windows, no blackboards. As he entered the room, a nicely dressed man approached him and said, “Hi, my name is Doug, welcome to the training center. Have you ever been here before?” The name tag indicated that Doug was the trainer. He seems like a nice guy, thought Jack.
“There’s some coffee and doughnuts over there—help yourself,” said Doug. This might even be enjoyable, thought Jack, although he still felt a little apprehensive.
With introductions out of the way and the objectives and agenda explained, Doug summed up by saying, “So at the end of the two days you will be expected to take a set of specifications and program them into the machine. Are there any questions?”
“So there are no tests?” asked Jack.
“Well,” responded Doug, “that is the test.”
Jack was a bit confused. “But that is what we do at work—I don’t see it as a test. A test is where I have to write down an answer to some question you pose about all this stuff.”
“There are no paper-and-pencil tests, just behavioral tests,” said Doug.
Suddenly it was lunchtime. Jack thought, “It’s true, time does go fast when you are having fun. This sure isn’t like school.” All 23 trainees went to another room where lunch was served.
“I can’t believe it. This is nothing like I expected,” said Ron. Ron was the fellow who
Jack had to interview and introduce to the group in what was called an icebreaker.
That icebreaker sure did a lot to get me relaxed and actually interested in the training, thought Jack.
Ron continued, “I always did poorly in school and was petrified about coming here.” Jack responded, “Me too.”
Ron said, “I like the idea of his periodically giving us mini-tests. Gives us an idea of how we are doing and provides us with extra help if we are falling behind.”
“Tests . . . oh, yeah, I find it hard to consider them tests. They’re hands-on, exactly what we will do on the job,” said Jack.
Later Jack thought, “Wow, it’s already over.”
“Nice job, Jack. You are now certified on this piece of equipment,” said Doug.
“Hey, Ron,” said Jack, “do you believe how much fun learning can be?”
Ron agreed: “Doug was great. He kept getting our input and tying our experiences to the new stuff we had to learn. I never thought I would say this, but I would like to get more training like this.”
“You bet,” said Jack. “I still can’t believe how great this was, especially after the dream