Being paid to Learn LO1368

Bernard Girard (bgirard@Dialup.FranceNet.fr)
Thu, 25 May 1995 09:42:21 +0000

Robert Levi wrote :
> The concept of "learning, and being paid for it" is almost antithetical
>to the > current work ethic, let alone the competitive marketplace.

Is is really true? One can find several instances where companies pay
people to learn.

1/ a lot of companies pay people to study, to get used to their ways :
they have in-house schools and colleges

2/ a lot of companies spend a lot of money for tuition. EDF (the french
electrical utility) psends 12,6% of its global payroll (sorry, I am niot
sure of the english word) in education. I remember people from IBM France
boasting they spend more on education than one of the largest Paris
Universities.

2/a certain part of the consulting business is learning : you don't know
the company, you don't know the people, you don't know the procedures. And
they ask you to work for them. And they are willing to pay you to learn
all that. Not because they want to be kind to you, but because they
beleive that in this process of learning you will tell them : I am not
sure that's the best way to do things. In such and such company I saw
people doing things differently and it was very efficient. Auditing is in
a way learning. Discovering. Understanding. Seing what others no longer
see just because they have seen it too often...

In this case, we see that learning is not only acquiring knowledge...

Bernard Girard
bgirard@Dialup.FranceNet.fr