Silent Generation Workplace Training

Traditionals (The Silent Generation- born in 1925-1945)

For the silent generation, workplace training is a fairly new concept. One gained the necessary skills for completing work through on-the-job training. For the traditionals, the soft skills (or people skills) were not meant to be very important for getting the job done. While participating in the training sessions, they prefer not to speak unless spoken to or asked to, and they expect a high degree of order, structure and consistency, centred on a clear and precise agenda. They fancy a conservative trainer who has an expert knowledge, and one who has achieved credibility in terms of age, qualifications or reputation (Solomon, 2008).

Then the question arises about How to get them into the training room? We should link the content to the overall betterment of the organisation; explain them how will it increase productivity and performance an explain them that how will the training enable them as an employee of the company to contribute to this (Solomon, 2008). The Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)

Being one of possibly the best academically educated generations, the Baby Boomers have set their own standards with due respect in the workplace today. They created the important differentiation between the technical skills (hard skills) and the people skills (soft skills) by

This generation views the facilitator (trainer) as a knowledgeable friend, and it is very important for the trainer to build a good relationship with the learners. Credibility (or the quality of being trusted) here is based on the qualifications, and if the age allows, it is also based on the reputation. The baby boomers tend to highly value intellectual knowledge, so the challenging task for the trainer is to give them opportunities to turn the knowledge given in training into practical skills (Solomon,