Education and Training for Market Transformation Programs: Keys to Success

Marge Anderson, Energy Center of Wisconsin

Keywords

Abstract

Energy program designers know that education and training are key elements of market transformation programs. Energy “geeks” think that if everyone knew what they knew, everyone would do what they do. Yet this is not the case.

Training should be done at the right time, deliver the right stuff, and be taught the right way. Program designers often roll out education and training programs too early in the program and are disappointed by lack of results. As energy geeks, our focus on content ignores the educational design elements needed to convert information to behavioral change. Specific techniques – built on adult learning theory – give us immediate results in energy education, if we know how to incorporate them appropriately into technical program design.

The Energy Center of Wisconsin has designed and implemented several highly successful energy training programs in public-private partnerships – programs resulting in demonstrated behavioral changes. The changes these programs have caused are due to a variety of factors – the application of theory to the design of education and training programs, successful adaptation of adult learning techniques to technical subject matter and technical instructors, appropriate integration of training into program design, and the incorporation of evaluation results into subsequent program design.

This paper will draw upon examples from the Wisconsin ENERGY STAR® Homes training series, which targets home builders, and the Daylighting Collaborative, a commercial buildings program targeting architects and engineers.