Training is one of the "teaching" family of words. But it has a distinctive character, with overtones of focus, discipline and purpose.

Focus is a key component. Training is strongly goal-oriented. It aims to establish patterns of behaviour, or to implant skills, not to create understanding or wisdom. In industry and commerce, where it is the preferred word, training is wholly directed towards specific goals.

And corporate, not individual goals. Training implies a process managed by the organisation to meet its needs; very different from learner-managed-learning.

Indeed, training may not need the active or intelligent participation of the learner. We train dogs and horses, we do not educate them. Cats are house-trained, babies potty-trained. We train plants to climb up trellises; we train our telescopes into the skies.

All control rests with the trainer, dragging the trainees behind. Both vehicles on the railways, and the long back ends of wedding dresses, are called trains.

Either the “trainee” has no will of its own, as with plants or telescopes, or there are strong overtones of discipline, of enforcing the will of the trainer over the trainee, as with dogs.

Trainees are not necessarily unwilling. Athletes train themselves. But the distinction between trainer and trainee is still valid; only with the the athlete both are the same person, split into two opposing parts, one forcing the other though pain barriers and exercise regimes in pursuit of a common aim.

Training is still the preferred term at work; one way an organisation can help its staff achieve corporate objectives.

The emphasis on directedness, and the overtones of discipline, may be less than they were; probably because the need for lifelong learning is now more widely accepted.

Providers who see industry as their main market tend to prefer training to either teaching or learning. They want to align their provision to commercial needs.

See also coaching, teaching, and vocational.