May 3, 2023

Where is the IM Training - and Where are the Instructors?

I've been a trainer for more than 25 years. I was one of the original training partners for AIIM's ERM and ECM Master Classes, and taught what I think was the first AIIM ERM course in San Francisco in 2006. Since then I've taught more than 200 multi-day workshops and nearly as many full-day seminars and preconference workshops. And I've developed nearly two dozen courses in both instructor-led and self-paced online formats. 

I believe that instructor-led, and, ideally, in-person courses can be substantially more valuable to attendees. I don't believe that instructors know everything, or have all the answers, though I do believe that good instructors have lots of examples, and stories, and angles from which to approach their chosen topics to support the learning experience. But I'd argue that at least as important is the give & take between the students. Students have their own experiences and lessons learned to share. Even students who are completely new to a discipline or profession will have new and interesting questions for the class to consider. 

Before I left AIIM, I did some research across more than 60 training providers and more than 80 specific programs. Even in the depths of the pandemic, the overwhelming majority of those providers and courses were offered in an instructor-led, albeit remote, format. Many also offered cohort-based learning, online collaborative platforms, office hours, or similar means to engage outside of the normal structured course schedule. 

Why is it, then, that there is such a dearth of instructor-led training in the information governance and information management industry? AIIM hasn't offered it for several years, and I don't think ARMA has ever offered instructor-led training. There are one-off courses here and there, offered by the likes of Rob Bogue (change management), Lewis Eisen (policy development) and Robert Smallwood (information governance), but they also tend to focus on private courses rather than offering scheduled public courses. To the best of my knowledge, the only IM or adjacent association offering scheduled, instructor-led training is IAPP. 

I think the associations are missing a huge opportunity here. Instructor-led training is incredibly valuable, and if the course content is good and the course is marketed properly, it can generate significant revenues and margins. 

So, two questions for anyone reading this: 
1. Are there any other, perhaps for-profit, IG/IM/RM-y training providers who are looking for partners to deliver their instructor-led content? I'm flexible on the financials; I'm more interested in getting back into helping students grow and develop as an instructor. 

2. Are any of the industry associations willing to rethink their lack of instructor-led courses? I'm happy to do significant work to (re)convert training content into something that can be delivered effectively and meaningfully, and again, I'm flexible on what the revenue model could look like. 

If the answer to both of these is no, I can write, and in fact have started to write, my own training content, but it saddens me that there is so much otherwise good content out there that is stuck in self-paced, sink-or-swim-on-your-own mode. 

No comments: