Part one of this article attempted to explain what AL is, and to define what the term ‘accelerated learning’ means; whilst there is no official definition, it is generally accepted amongst practitioners that it’s about delivering more in less time, with enhanced memory retention and recall.

Back in April this year I was asked to contribute, along with about four other learning specialists, to an article about ‘offbeat training methods’, the article was published on Trainingzone.co.uk (http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=182558) under the title ‘Wacky Training: Do unconventional methods really work?’.

Two things immediately struck me after reading the final article; firstly, that AL design is still referred to as ‘wacky’ when we do in fact have decades of scientific research to support us. I realise we still have a long way to go before AL is the accepted norm and that is primarily down to us, the practitioners.

My second realisation came when, in the same article, I read “Now that the ‘Recession’ word is being bandied about, there is a question mark over whether the trend towards creative learning approaches will be halted. “ I argue that it is precisely because training budgets are being cut that we need accelerated learning more than ever.

So how do we make it more acceptable? It’s one of the most common questions we are asked when running train-the-trainer workshops, one of the biggest concerns if you like, that “the people in our company will never take part in these sort of exercises”.

Well, in nearly 13 years of delivery I have only encountered one unwilling person (a man who was due to retire the following week and didn’t want to be on the course anyway - he literally folded his arms very tightly and refused to move!); other than that, hundreds of people have found AL refreshing and effective. How do I do it? At the start of a workshop I matter-of-factly explain that the course is designed to the principles of AL and provide them with titles of books they can read to find out more, website addresses, a brief description of the science behind it, and examples from other companies I've worked with. It takes me about 15-20 minutes and paves the way for a resistance-free day!

I appreciate that if you are new to facilitating with AL methods that confidence in them can be low at first, but the more successful events you run – as they will be – the more your confidence comes across to the delegates, and the more confident they will be. Once people embrace AL they will not want to go back to old methods and will start to demand a richer learning experience.

Naturally, people want to see facts and figures to compare AL with what we have come to know as conventional training. Two case studies were carried out and I think the results speak for themselves.

Case study 1

Training Results for Bell Atlantic

Cost of Course A cut by 42%
Cost of Course B cut by 57%

This is the supervisor’s evaluation.

Case study 2

One-year study at Bridley Moor School

What would also be interesting to know is how these improved personal skills impacted the company as a whole, as far as I know this data is not available.

Although I don't have as much detail as the above examples, another two case-studies reported this:

Northeast Medical College: Forty percent of first-year medical students failed their final exam in anatomy. The course was redesigned with integrative learning principles—and 100 percent passed. (Information supplied by Laurence D. Martel, President, National Academy of Integrative Learning, Hilton Head, South Carolina).

Intel Corporation: Participants on one course achieved a knowledge-gain of 507 percent compared with 14 percent by traditional methods. (Information from The Centre for Accelerated Learning, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin).