Training: Designing for Lasting Change

Bobbi Tannenbaum, KEMA, Inc.
Robert Wirtshafter, Wirtshafter Associates, Inc.
Deborah Laurel, Laurel and Associates

Keywords

Abstract

Energy program implementers offer education and training to overcome information as a barrier to the adoption of energy efficient products and practices. This paper is based upon two research efforts and supplemental activities to identify Best Practices (and the barriers to implementing them) in adult (energy) education. In 2004, we conducted case studies of six California energy workshops that were not meeting their objectives. In a related effort we conducted telephone interviews to identify Best Practices in adult Education and Training. In April 2006, as part of the 2005 CPUC approved ETS evaluation, we offered a “train the trainers” workshop. The dual purpose of the workshop was to identify additional barriers to the implementation of Best Practices, while communicating Best Practices in design and instruction to energy education professionals.

Through these efforts and secondary research, we identified various Best Practices in adult education and training in three main areas: marketing, design and implementation, and evaluation. In this paper, we discuss these Best Practices as they apply to energy education and identify the barriers to their implementation, particularly at utility sponsored Energy Centers. The Best Practices and the identified barriers, however, apply to much of the energy education efforts throughout the US.

The adoption of Best Practices in the energy industry could result in substantial changes in the outcomes of energy education efforts – outcomes that lead to behavioral changes and the increased adoption of energy efficiency measures. Wholesale adoption of Best Practices is unlikely to occur unless the goals of education funders or regulators is refocused from achieving
attendance targets to demonstrating changes in participant behavior.