PEOPLE STREET: Not a child's play

Albert Einstein once said, “Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it.”

Simply put, the only source of knowledge is experience.

Experiential learning is a way of educating through the first-hand experience where skills, knowledge and understanding are acquired outside the traditional classrooms setting. Such learning involves what we know as internships, field trips, research and live projects.

Experiential learning, a term, that started arising in the mid-nineteenth century, actually dates back to the era of ancient India when it had ‘Gurukuls’ and students learned things by doing. They didn’t mug up textbooks to gain knowledge unlike what our traditional formal education teaches. Experiential learning bridges the gap that is created between theory and practical learning. Today, experiential learning has become significant not only for students in schools and colleges but also for young professionals in gaining job knowledge.

Why experiential learning?

Learning through doing involves key elements like reflection, analysis and synthesis. It also gives scope to the new employee to take initiative, make the decision and be accountable for the results. The employee too feels confident as he has obtained the result after being engaged in the work intellectually, emotionally and creatively.

Expressing his views on experiential learning, Sukhjit S Pasricha, chief – human resources and administration, Bajaj Finserv says, “Experiential learning comes naturally to humans right from their childhood days. We definitely learn better by doing in the actual/simulated environment than by just listening or imagining. Even the education system in India has realised this and the new schools are all gearing up for providing exposure through experiential learning than just reading and following books in the classroom environment."

"In the higher education, business schools have started demanding work experience as a prerequisite to take admissions and understand the relevance of theories in the class. The corporate world has also moved to new ways of On-job training rather than classroom-based lectures,” he added.

There are lots of other benefits from practical learning. It motivates an individual to learn more as well as creates more learners. The workshops and internships organised by companies become more meaningful to the learners. The skills and knowledge acquired in the process make an individual confident and prepare them to face the competitive world.

Advantages to both employee and employer

After undergoing experiential learning, which also means the individual has experience of working in the real-world setting, number of good career opportunities increase.

Anviti Sangwan, HR director, Adecco Group India, strongly believes that by moving ahead of theory to the realm of learning, young employees get a first-hand experience of practising what has been taught in colleges. "The transition from school to work and making a decision that affects their future career is one of the most challenging and critical phases in young people’s lives. Hence, experiential learning can help youngsters to take their first step onto the career ladder. They can start to build up that much-needed experience through a variety of jobs, thereby helping to improve their employability.”

On employer’s part, Sangwan adds, “These internships, temporary work, and interactive sessions are an opportunity to establish a pipeline of strong, qualified candidates to fill future part and full-time positions for corporates. Another long-term benefit is that it involves lower costs for recruiting and training, as these youngsters will be joining with some pre-training, having already been familiarised to a company’s culture and values.”

The magnitude of power that experiential learning carries, beyond doubt, is a stepping stone towards success. It is the future of learning which has already started benefitting many organisations and young employees entering the corporate world.

BACK TO BASICS

• Like Gurukuls, experiential learning bridges the gap between theory, practical learning
   
• By working in a  real-world setting, number good career options increase
   
• For corporates, long-term benefit is that it involves lower costs for recruiting and training

The writer is executive coach & owner of www.thechrysallis.com