Topic 2:

Career change: education to corporate training

Question: I need the best information to switch from the education field to the corporate training field: can you help me?

--No Name, Connecticut

Answer: It is not unusual for an educator to make a career change to corporate training. Although many similarities exist between the two fields, teaching and training are different in their approaches, goals and styles. There are a number of items you need to consider for a successful transition.

• Identify your transferable/functional skills that are applicable to T&D i.e., course/curriculum design, project management, learning assessment, instructional, communications, teamwork, interpersonal relations.
• Identify your work content skills, that is, expertise specific to a particular industry or field i.e., literacy, ESL, non-profit, business English, computer (soft & hard).
• If you are associated with a higher education institution, look into corporate universities as a viable option.
• Consider your experience in teaching/counseling students from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds as transferable to understanding organization's diversity issues.
• Although you may have some subject matter expertise, you need to be knowledgeable about the technical side of training - its competencies, tools and practices. Take some basic courses/seminars i.e., instructional systems design, adult development, workplace learning, OD, e-learning, performance improvement and assessment. Consider certification or an advanced degree for increased credibility and self-confidence in your abilities to make the transition.
• Join your local ASTD Chapter and other relevant HR professional associations to become more aware of current practices and strategies as well as for networking purposes.
• Become aware of the issues and trends both in the T&D field as well as general business by reading T&D Magazine and other HR and business magazines i.e., Training, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast Company.
• Resumes: This situation requires a targeted functional resume. You want the resume to project your future professional image as a corporate trainer not your past one as a teacher. Be careful to transfer, wherever possible, education terminology into training and business works/phases i.e., teaching to delivery or facilitation, instructional design rather than curriculum design, etc. If you have had any experience with long distance or Web-based teaching, be sure to include it.
  

--AR