A good example of how self-empowerment training can change people lives in a powerful way, can be witnessed in the welfare-to-work arena. I was fortunate to have the experience of teaching in this area for 5 years. During that time I worked for a private company that sought government contracts through a bidding process of the state of CT to teach adults coming off of the welfare system how to ready themselves for work.
I worked for a young entrepreneur, Chris Kuselias who created a wonderful little company called Career T.E.A.M. (CTL) that combined state fund acquisitioning skills with motivational training to create an award winning training company. Eleven years ago this young entrepreneur saw a unique opportunity by way of the newly written welfare reform Act of 1996 to provide motivational (self-help) training to welfare recipients that were mandated to move from welfare to work. The state wasn't interested in motivational training. They were only interested in placing welfare recipients into jobs. The challenge was to convince state agencies who held the purse strings that motivational training is what was needed. That was a difficult challenge.
They went around the state selling their simple idea. The main premise was this: Get enough welfare recipients to believe in themselves and they will want to be rid of welfare forever. Meantime, they in turn convinced employers that motivated workers would bring increased productivity. CTL convinced a few agencies that they could easily meet the job placement benchmarks with motivated students. Hence it was a win/win situation for everyone involved. The state depleted their welfare ranks, CTL profited from state training dollars, welfare recipients found themselves at work and being self-sufficient again through jobs provided by the company's job placement services, and employers were getting fresh crops of motivated employees showing up for work.
It was a success! CTL pumped out more job placements than any agency in Connecticut had seen in years. No one could come close to the placements that the company was producing! Here is the important thing to get from this story.
Sure they had good outreach people doing job placements, and good recruiters effectively weeding out those prospects that did not want help, but without a doubt the main reason for the company's high job placement success was due to its teaching self-motivational concepts to the mandated adults during the six week training program conceived by Career TEAM. It was an invisible process to many who participated, but rest assure it was the philosophy of the teaching that made it all work.
I came to Career TEAM in 1999 with my shared passion and convictions about self-empowerment. I learned the methods that Chris used and used them along with the materials CTL published at the time. I had successfully woven into my pre-employment training much of my own philosophy being developed during my tenure there. Now what is key to note is that most companies or agencies in the country did not and still do not use self-empowering methods in their training. The ones that due are highly successful, just like CTL.
Self-empowerment works because empowerment is what we all want, that is why it has universal appeal. It reaches the soul of every person. It is natural to want to be empowered. It is our human heritage. It is spiritual. That is why the moment a student in a motivational class hears some familiar words or phrases from empowering materials they instantly recognize the sound. They react as if their spirit had returned home.
Transformative learning theory (TLT) is one of the most self-empowering ways to learn that has been known within the world of education. Here are 10 reasons why TLT is self-empowering:
1. TLT places the responsibility for learning squarely on the shoulders of the learner instead of the teacher and encourages self-paced and continuous learning. The learner is empowered.
2. TLT is self-Directed. It allows for the students to participate in the selection and methods used. The learner is empowered.
3. TLT employs critical reflection, an analyzing of ones self, in relation to what is being taught. This goes beyond just learning facts. The learner is empowering.
4. TLT brings spirituality into the learning arena by allowing for self evaluation of beliefs and values associated with what is being learned. The learner is empowered.
5. TLT examines prejudices and long held ideas that may be incorrect but accepted by allowing and encouraging this kind of self- analysis in the classroom. The learner is empowered..
6. TLT examines meanings and meaning schemes, not just thoughts or ideas. Meanings are what matters to us. This is a complicated process and the nature of adult learning. The students change their opinions. The learner is empowered.
7. TLT seeks and encourages a profound change from the learning experience. It is more than just learning the what; it is also learning the why. The learner is empowered.
8. TLT employs group discussion and makes use of the group dynamic to enhance learning. Essentially we multiply our learning opportunities as we recognize our co-learners as our teachers. The learner is empowered.
9. TLT recognizes how adults learn which is primarily re-learning or changing one's meaning schemes. No one ever taught us that. The learner is empowered.
10. TLT is not just receiving passed along information. It requires deep and honest appraisals of the information, of ourselves in relation to that information, and of others in our group which expands our people skills while learning. The learner is empowered.