Is Corporate Training a Good Edskip for Educators?

Thank you for reading the EdSkipper, Skip’s newsletter about skipping from education to education-aligned careers. Every Saturday, I send out a list of curated remote jobs. Premium subscribers receive two additional emails a month with industry insights and advice to help you apply more competitively to the jobs you’re passionate about.

Many of the corporate training jobs I see are looking for candidates who have an BA in Human Resources or in Education. That's pretty great proof that your teaching skills can align with the role!

The challenge when educators apply to training roles is not skill alignment but skill differentiation. Many of the skills we include to demonstrate our training experience -- facilitation, lesson planning, professional development -- are common skills educators have. When you’re applying to training roles, it can feel particularly challenging to differentiate yourself. 

Today's newsletter digs into the responsibilities of corporate trainers and offers you some ways to think about your skills in a new way. My goal is to give you concrete strategies to revise your resume so it reflects your strengths (rather than the strengths of teachers in general).

I'm focusing this newsletter -- and the job descriptions that I analyzed to produce it -- on corporate training roles. These roles involve training employees (or partners) on business objectives or helping them build their professional skills related to those business objectives. I’m not thinking about professional learning roles at edtech companies or education non-profits where trainers are training educators. 

That's because I want to really dive into how our training-related skills are relevant outside of a school context. But I also hope you’ll consider corporate training roles because they are typically less competitive than a professional learning specialist at a major edtech company. (Not because the competition is less qualified but because these roles are not being (as!) flooded with applications from fellow teachers. They are a little harder to search for and many educators do want to stay in education-adjacent fields.)

That said, you can apply the strategies I talk about in today's newsletter when you’re applying to training roles in edtech as well!

What’s in this issue:

• Are corporate recruiters really considering educators for training roles?

• Where do you find corporate training roles? (premium subscribers only)

• What do corporate trainers do?  (premium subscribers only)

• How do I differentiate my experience for these roles? (premium subscribers only)

Are corporate recruiters really considering for educators for training roles?

ATD, the talent development professional organization, defines relevant professional experience explicitly as paid training tasks performed with adults. For example, candidates for their certification process need at least 3 years experience to qualify for their certification process. This would seem to suggest that an education degree or teaching experience is less valued in a corporate environment.

Unlike a PMP certification for project management, ATD certification is not a frequent requirement for training roles (or even many learning and development roles). I much more frequently see a BA in Education as being one of the preferred experiences. 

That said, there is sometimes a bias in the training industry for experience teaching adults, which is reflected in ATD’s guidelines. The key reason is that they are distinguishing between adult learning theories and models and pedagogical learning theories and models.

This bias starts with the assumption that there are significant distinctions between how adults learn (andragogy) and how kids learn (pedagogy) and then that what works in a classroom of high schoolers doesn't necessarily translate into a workshop with adults. 

And it’s built into how we talk about teaching and learning — notice how I even shift the words I used to reflect these different demographic contexts!

But increasingly I'm seeing educators talk about how the strategies that underlie andragogy are present in their classrooms – and that we should be incorporating more of those strategies.

I saw this in my own teaching too. I taught literature to older students so my classroom was always discussion-centered, and I served frequently as a facilitator for those conversations. (In a business context, this is a skill I routinely get compliments on.) Yet WGU argues facilitation of student-led conversations is a key feature of adult training practices and not student classrooms, which are teacher-centered and so require different learning methodologies and techniques.

Many of the distinctions between adult learning and child learning feel centered in traditional teaching practices that are outdated or at least rapidly changing. I suspect many of you frequently blur these distinctions in your own teaching practice as well.

That means, it's worth unpacking what your teaching strategies are, why you use them, and what specific learning methodologies and strategies underlie them. You may find that the distinction between adult learning practices and pedagogical ones is not as relevant for how you teach.

While these specifics may not be relevant in your resume (though there are some ways to showcase this), it's something to think about when you're writing cover letters, preparing your professional statement (aka career narrative), and interviewing. It can help you answer questions by showing how your teaching practices are grounded in learning theory as well as allow you to tap into your experience teaching younger learners without limiting yourself to a specific age range.

As you’re reading job descriptions, pay attention to how they frame education or training experience for clues about whether to apply and how to position yourself. Some recruiters are looking to the ATD for guidance on experience – and you’ll often see them include a bullet there on understanding “adult” learning methodologies – while other recruiters are looking for candidates with an education degree or teaching experience, regardless of student age. These are jobs where your skills align and you may need to do a bit of extra work to show that.

Other recruiters will be explicit that they are looking for direct industry experience (“learning and development experience” or “HR/talent experience”). These are roles where you likely need more extensive work in professional development (i.e. instructional coaching as a major part of your job, admin experience, etc) to be competitive. But I also see many of you who have this experience so just need to emphasize it!

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