All managers need to be aware of the amazing new technologies that make the delivery of effective Workforce Math Education possible in this 21st Century.
It is as dramatic an improvement as many of our other technologies. 10% the cost and 10 times more effective.
Old Days
A student was placed in a Classroom situation with other students, typically 10 to 20. A fixed class pace for all students.
If you had 12 students and the class cost $9, 000 that would be $750 per student. However, often there were fewer students due to scheduling conflicts and the cost per student could be much higher, say $1,000.
Even if the Content was perfect, the Pedagogy was very bad. This is because students learn at different paces and have different background knowledge and different abilities.
For a third of the students the class was too slow and boring, another third too fast and impossible to keep up with, and maybe a third who found it just right.
The weak students learned very little and were discouraged, the strong students did not learn near as much as they could have and were bored
Only about a third of the students learned an optimal amount. And, even this was not too good due to the crammed schedule.
Math can not be learned and mastered without Unfocused learning between topics. That is, one needs to concentrate for about 30 minutes and then have a “break” to let it “soak in”, i.e. unfocused learning.
So it is much better to string out the 40 hours over 40 sessions or about 60 days. This is well known by modern educators. Impossible in a classroom situation.
Of course, the Internal Labor Rate costs were quite high especially if the students were being paid overtime rates. An internal labor rate of say $60/hr would then cost about $2,400 per student.
The final result is that it would probably cost about $3,000/student for a mediocre result due to weak Pedagogy.
Today
You can deliver the Proper Content with Proper Pedagogy for about $200 to $300 per student – in a local on-site situation which makes it very easy to schedule for all students.
More importantly, the student will study the math in short sessions spread over many days. This yields much better absorption and understanding.
Also, since it is self paced the student never feels frustration by not being able to “keep up”. This has an important psychological beneficial effect.
A fast student will not get bored and will learn much more in a given time.
Most importantly, ALL students will learn an optimal amount for the student.
A fast student may get through the entire Advanced Program in 30 hours. A slow student may just get though the first four Modules in 30 hours.
ALL students will vastly improve their math abilities and knowledge in about 40 hours, which will improve their job performance in many situations.
Best of all, one can schedule the sessions during slow time or down time so the students main work schedule is not negatively impacted as it is when one has to get away for a whole week.
This lowers internal labor costs dramatically and is why the total cost of this superior training is so low it is “almost free”.
Bottom Line
Old Days $3,000 Disruptive schedule Weak average results.
Today $300 Easy schedule. Very good average results
Math training has a very beneficial effect on a student’s productivity and ability to do various jobs better
Today one can train a worker for $300 in a much better way than in the old days when it cost $3,000 for a much poorer result.