{"id":8993,"date":"2019-08-16T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/?p=8993"},"modified":"2020-01-17T20:31:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T20:31:27","slug":"role-associations-educational-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/role-associations-educational-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"The Role of Associations in the Educational Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Association Success.<\/em><\/h4>\n

In the educational landscape, associations have an important role to play in helping learners become job-ready. By learners, I don\u2019t just mean those at the start of their professional careers, but also those at a later stage looking to make a change in career paths. We can find them in our staff, our members, and just about everywhere. We never stop learning, do we?<\/p>\n

While higher education is the traditional medium to develop skills and to advance in your career,\u00a0associations provide a different solution. In some ways, we even compete with higher education institutions.<\/p>\n

How can associations cater to learners?<\/h2>\n

First, let\u2019s look at gap analysis. What is it? In its simplest, most purest form, it\u2019s about\u00a0understanding the actual performance against the potential or desired performance. Basically, associations want to spray some association foam to fill that gap, to fill every crevice and nook and cranny between where learners are and where they want to go.<\/p>\n

They need to identify what knowledge, skills, and abilities learners need in order to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Get a specific job, or<\/li>\n
  2. Advance in the career ladder or get a promotion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For example, there seems to be a gap between theory and practice;\u00a0what\u2019s being taught in the classroom isn\u2019t necessarily the skills that are needed for candidates to actually be placed and be successful in jobs. Associations can fill that gap. If we look at training for event planning, I know about places that are training the next generation of event planners with professors who aren\u2019t actually planning meetings and events. So they\u2019re not teaching things like negotiating difficult contracts, navigating the wide disparities in hotel WiFi, overcoming room block poachers, and incentivizing attendees inclined to book on Airbnbs rather than in the hotel room block\u2014mainly because those professors haven\u2019t encountered these situations in the real world.<\/p>\n

    Evaluate your education portfolio<\/h2>\n

    To cater to your learners, it really starts with\u00a0evaluating your current education portfolio, and then adding programs, products, services that could support learner growth and development, to fill the gaps and to be job-ready. But then, be really clear and intentional about sunsetting programs, products and services that are past their prime. I think we hang on for far too long to things that are no longer a good fit for us and our members. Like Marie Kondo in\u00a0Tidying Up<\/i>\u00a0on Netflix, associations need to fold up some of those things that aren\u2019t serving them well. Thank them, say goodbye and put them in the pile to be donated, and be open and prepared to welcome something new into your space.<\/p>\n

    \"Marie
    Like Marie Kondo in\u00a0<\/em>Tidying Up on Netflix, associations need to fold up some of their educational activities that aren\u2019t serving them well, thank them, and say goodbye. This gives your staff and members the space to welcome new educational resources to your association.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Provide an accessible mix of education options<\/h2>\n

    The accessibility and the number of ways that associations can provide learning are abundant in terms of delivery platform, model, cost, and content.\u00a0I like to think that our education portfolio is broadly a mix of not just face to face programs and online learning options, but also resources that communicate value and that help teach our learners and our members. These include learning vehicles such as blogs, newsletters, websites, magazines, podcasts, and the like.<\/p>\n

    However, this comes with a word of caution. Lately I\u2019ve seen firsthand this overabundance of information and content\u2014we think more is more. But ultimately\u00a0our learners lose when we adopt this mentality. We challenge them to make sense of the various communications we send or events we hold. To be successful, associations need to become the guide to help learners and job seekers navigate the myriad ways to learn within our organizations. It\u2019s almost like an institution of higher education having an advisor lead learners through the development and implementation of a systematic curriculum plan.<\/p>\n

    Using gap analysis will help us develop and deploy\u00a0a more realistic education portfolio\u00a0that our members actually want (and need!). So instead of taking a stab in the dark in terms of the content we should be offering, let\u2019s leverage this approach.\u00a0It will help us provide learning opportunities that we know they need and we know they\u2019ll be interested in.<\/p>\n

    <\/i>\n\t\t\tAaron spoke in the \u201cMind the Gap: Advancing the Workforce Through Association Education\u2019\u2019 session during SURGE Co-Creation, an interactive virtual conference hosted by AssociationSuccess.org on May 1-3, 2019. <\/i><\/p>\n

    For a more in-depth discussion about closing the education gap in associations, watch the recorded session on demand by visiting AssociationSuccess.org<\/a><\/strong>, signing in or creating a free account if you don’t have one already, and selecting the “Mind the Gap” session from May 3.\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/i><\/p>\n

    <\/div>
    \"\"<\/div>

    About The Author<\/h3>\n\t\t\tAaron Wolowiec, MSA, CAE, CMP, CTA is a learning strategist and meetings coach for leading trade associations and individual membership societies across the United States. Committed to the latest research and trends on learning, intentional networking environments and meaningful transfer exercises, he launched Event Garde<\/a><\/strong>, a professional development consultancy, in 2011.\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Instead of taking a stab at the content associations should be offering, leverage the approach of an educational gap analysis to determine members’ professional education needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":8991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,4],"tags":[406,74,44],"class_list":["post-8993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-membership","tag-education","tag-membership-2","tag-online-learning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Role of Associations in the Educational Landscape - Association Adviser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Instead of taking a stab at the content associations should be offering, leverage the approach of an educational gap analysis to determine members' professional education needs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/role-associations-educational-landscape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Role of Associations in the Educational Landscape - 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