Formal Learning refers to education delivered in a systematic, structured environment with defined objectives, a set curriculum, and typically, some form of official recognition or accreditation. Unlike incidental learning—which happens by accident over a lukewarm coffee on-site—this is intentional Structured Learning. It is organised by an education or training provider and is designed to move a learner from a state of ‘not knowing’ to a state of ‘verifiable competency’.
For a manufacturer, providing this level of Pedagogical Training is an exercise in signalling. It signals that your technical content has been peer-reviewed, stripped of “marketing gloss”, and refined into a narrative that respects the architect’s time and cognitive load.
The challenge is that humans, being human, tend to equate “formal” with “boring”. There is a pervasive perception gap where manufacturers provide dense, linear data dumps, assuming that “more information” equals “more learning”. In reality, the brain has a limited appetite for dry technical specifications. Effective instruction acknowledges choice architecture; it guides the architect through a logical sequence—identifying a structural problem, exploring the regulatory landscape, and then presenting the solution as the only rational conclusion.
If you treat this process as a tick-box exercise, you create friction. If you treat it as a journey that reduces the architect’s perceived risk, you create behavioural leverage.
Real-World Application: The Fire-Safety Reframe Consider a manufacturer of complex rainscreen cladding attempting to deliver a technical seminar.
- The “Standard” Approach: A 60-minute slideshow detailing every chemical compound in the panel. The audience enters “energy-saving mode” (sleep) by slide four because the information lacks context.
- The FRAKT Approach: The session is structured around the evolution of Building Regulations. It frames the content not as a product pitch, but as a “Risk Mitigation Masterclass”. By the time the technical specs are introduced, the audience views them not as “features” but as “solutions to a legal and ethical headache”.
The result? The architect hasn’t just “learned”; they have been conditioned to see your product as the most intellectually rigorous choice.
The FRAKT Take: Formal Learning is not a lecture; it is a structured reduction of uncertainty. If your CPD feels like a warranty document being read aloud, you aren’t educating—you’re just trespassing on someone’s afternoon.
