Service Management - Education vs. Training

Although these terms are frequently used synonymously, “Training” is not “Education”. This is not to say that training is not important because without training, education would be incomplete. When investing your capital to increase performance and change behavior it could be beneficial to understand the distinction.

Education

When we are educated we learn facts, theory or required details about the who, what, where, when and why of a particular subject. Sometimes education will build on a foundation of knowledge so that you may become more expert in that area. A simple example is given with the idea of a language. You may know how to speak it. When you go to school and are educated you learn what a verb is, and how adjectives are used. We learn the syntax and constructs of the language. Some move on to be expert linguist. They become educated and highly skilled in the subject of language.

When you are attending a Service Management or DevOps course you are learning about industry best practices, standards, process activities, the roles and responsibilities required and more. This is a form of education. When a learner takes those concepts and puts them into practice one could say that the cost of your education has proven to be a good investment!

Another benefit of taking your education and putting it into practice is the tacit knowledge or experiential knowledge gained. Education inspires. Education can change ones viewpoint and outlook. Inspiration can lead to changed behavior. Those who are educated are skilled and are generally able to operate in higher performing job role functions with a higher pay scale.

Training

There are many forms of training, but simply put training is a way to teach someone how to perform a task. Sometimes these are repetitive tasks and an individual can become very skilled at performing them. A soldier is trained in warfare. Another form of training is physical training. The linguist although educated may require repetitive training to speak the language just right.

If we take the situation above where an individual was educated on service management best practices, then an example of training in this area might be the training required for tools. The operators and support personnel would need to be trained on how to record an incident with the tool that is selected by their company. Other technicians will need to be trained on how to configure the tool. But wait! How can they configure the tool if they do not know the concepts of service management and are not educated? How will they know what the processes are or where the integration points should be? How can they configure or even use the tools for best practices if they are not educated? On the other hand, if we do not have training on how to use and automate with tools, how can we hope for excellence?

Therefore, it is likely that in order to optimize resources and produce the best business outcomes possible, both education and training will be required. When selected properly, the return on investment could be astounding.

“Educate and Inspire” http://www.itsmacademy.com

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