How Franchising can help celebrate Adult Learners Week

It’s Adult Learners Week, we’re celebrating and loving the theme of “It’s only the beginning: Later Life Learning and Career Shifting”

As workplace learning specialists, we’ve been advocating for years that that the Australian franchise sector is one of the nation's largest, yet unrecognised, providers of adult learning and workplace training. Yet, the sector and franchise systems remain disconnected from the core principles and practices of adult learning and Vocational Education & Training [VET].

Franchising provides opportunities for adults to make calculated career shifts and see them start a whole new path. In many ways, franchising is only just the beginning.

So, to help celebrate Adult Learners Week, we are reminding the franchise sector that all their training programs and in-field support falls firmly and squarely within the boundaries of adult learning and VET – as the sector aims to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes required for great franchise management and operations.  The reminder is based on our continual observation of the sector and a majority of franchisors grappling with this concept and the obligations that come with adult learning and VET.

Corven has dedicated 2011 to researching and commenting on pre-entry franchise education and due diligence and how it’s such a small [and relatively unassessed] part of gaining knowledge, skills and attitudes required to successfully manage and operate a franchise.

It is not until a new franchisee participates in their franchisor’s induction program that things really begin to heat up, from an adult learning perspective.

Induction Programs are generally accepted as a fundamental of franchising [as every franchise system will have one], serving as a gateway into being ‘open for business’. Our research indicates induction programs can be from anywhere from a day to 12-months, focusing on a range of business and operational skills delivered through a mix of learning modes, such as workshops, presentations, online and on-site learning experiences.

Our view? Induction Programs are like military bootcamps in many ways. They are time intense, pressure-cooker learning environments. Franchisees are learning how to manage and operate a small business [in what it normally takes TAFE students 12-months to complete], often from well meaning trainers who have never owned a franchise business before.

Plus, franchisees are not just learning... they’re building a business. They have to recruit staff, still deal with banks, lawyers, builders, suppliers and they may be away from family and friends, who are often the greatest source of grounding and strength during tough times. It’s intense and left wanting.

We have found the key consequences of adopting a bootcamp approach to franchisee Induction Programs include:

• Whitewashing operational standards and procedures, with no consistent learning outcomes achieved or assessed. This illustrates to us that adult learning and VET practices in franchising are predominately informal, intuitive or ignored; resulting in significant variations between trainer, program content and assessment quality.
• Letting tradition, politics and egos dictate Induction Program format, content and presenters.
• Limiting exposure to business ownership and management obligations, such as broader legislative compliance requirements, industrial relations and OHS.
• Having a predominate focus on ‘creating’ docile, compliant franchisees, rather than competent business owner-operators.
• Surfacing language, literacy and numeracy [LLN] issues that franchisors probably missed [or don’t actually assess] during due diligence.

All businesses have LLN requirements, from filling in documents; delegating effectively; listening to and comprehending instructions; reading and understanding legal documents, emails, manuals, newsletters; analysing financial reports; computer and mobile technology use and calculating amounts and accurate data entry are all examples of LLN in action for a franchisee.

Franchisees from a Non-English Speaking Background [NESB] may pose different challenges to franchisors, but all franchisees pose challenges if franchisor is under skilled and under resourced. Franchisors are responsible for developing competencies required for franchise excellence and this includes calling upon adult learning and VET practices to support all franchisees with LLN learning challenges. LLN is not a just a migrant or NESB issue, so let’s not make it one.

So, are bootcamp-inspired franchisee inductions generally irresponsible? Depends on how robust the program and learning outcomes are against adult learning and VET practices.  

Can the ‘boot’ be taken out of the ‘bootcamp’? Absolutely.

It all starts at the top, with leaders in the sector and franchisors needing to make significant mindset shift towards ‘responsible learning leadership’. How do franchisors learn to be franchisors? Who determines what learning, education and training looks like in a franchise system and in the sector, for that matter.   

Franchisees invest in franchising and the least the sector and franchisors can do is invest back in their career shift. This initial period can be a time of enormous uncertainty for any franchisee and an appropriate opportunity for the franchisor to applyi accountable best practice adult learning and VET strategies.

Some points for discussion and consideration:

• Shift the mindset from ‘time is money’ to ‘investing in success’
• Shift the accountability for achieving learning outcomes from franchisees to those designing, delivering and assessing adult learning.
• Shift the practice from ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ and ‘our training is fine’ to alignment with VET practices and nationally recognised qualifications.
• Shift the level of in-field support up a gear and ensure franchisors and their staff hold the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment; Vocational Graduate Certificate in Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Practice; Diploma of Franchising and an equivalent industrial qualification.
• Shift the cultural mix and ensure that a franchise system’s Trainers and Field Managers reflect the cultural heritage of their franchisees.
• Shift the professionalism and conduct with annual capability assessments against VET and adult learning practices for franchisors, Trainers and Field Managers.
• Shift the learning experience from classroom and ‘talk at’ presentations towards blended experiences, including on-site industrial experience; networking, eLearning and social media platforms.