By Dylan Parkes | February 17, 2026
Teaching vs Training: A Personal Reflection on 8 months with Pivotal180
After eight years in the classroom as a graduate TA and eight months in professional training, I find myself standing at an intersection of two worlds that seem similar on the surface but diverge in profound ways. Both involve imparting knowledge, both require standing before a group of people, and both demand preparation and subject expertise. Yet the difference between being a teacher and being a trainer has become increasingly clear to me.
The Heart of the Matter
“To teach is to learn twice over.” – Joseph Joubert
This quote has never been truer for me than now. In transitioning from the classroom to the corporate training room, I have learned almost as much as I am responsible for imparting. Honestly, perhaps even more. The irony is not lost on me; in a new role focused on training, I am constantly teaching myself about what it means to educate another person.
The work that I do now is “training”, and the concepts are technical in nature. I deal with systems, processes, and procedures that have right answers and wrong answers, efficient methods and inefficient ones. However, if the art and compassion of teaching are overlooked, the material delivered and resultant outcomes will fall flat.
A manual can train. A video tutorial can train. But I do believe that only a person can teach.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Training, I have discovered, is often about the “how”.
How do you complete this process? How do you troubleshoot this problem?
It is specific, measurable, and targeted. Success in training can be quantified:
Did the participant complete the task? Can they replicate the procedure? Do they achieve the desired outcome?
Teaching, on the other hand, reaches beyond the how and into the “why”.
Why does this matter? Why should you care? Why might you approach this differently in various contexts?
Teaching cultivates understanding, not just competence. It plants seeds that may grow in directions you never anticipated.
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward
In my eight years in the classroom, I witnessed this aphorism repeatedly. The lessons that stuck with students were never the ones where rote information was provided to them. There were always moments when curiosity was ignited, when genuine understanding was achieved, when learning became not a chore but a process of discovery.
The Trainer Who Teaches
Now, in the training room, I carry this lesson with me. Yes, my participants need to leave with specific skills. Yes, there are measurable outcomes and competencies. But I cannot be merely a conduit for information. I need to impart to my students both meaning and enjoyment in the act of learning something new, even when that “something new” is technical in nature and my student is an established finance professional.
This is where the trainer and the teacher merge. When I approach technical training through the eyes of a teacher, something shifts. The room feels different. Questions go deeper. Engagement rises. People don’t just learn the steps; they understand the system. They don’t just follow the procedure; they grasp the reasoning behind it.
I don’t always hit the mark but it would be a disservice not to try.
The Gift of Both Worlds
What I have come to understand is that being a teacher is about identity, while training is about activity. In my eight months of professional training, I have been tested in ways my eight years in the classroom never prepared me for. Time constraints are tighter. Attention spans are shorter as emails and day to day work give its clarion call. The material is drier, more technical, less inherently engaging. But this is precisely where a teacher must step forward.
Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn
The beautiful paradox of this journey is that in trying to be a better trainer, I have become a better teacher. In trying to infuse my training with teaching, I have learned what matters most: connection, curiosity, and compassion. Technical accuracy is necessary, but it is not sufficient. People need to feel that their learning matters, that their questions are valued, that their growth is appreciated.
So, I continue to walk this line between trainer and teacher, bringing the best of both worlds to everyone I have the privilege to train, to teach. I have this privilege in large part because of the deep awareness of these nuances by those who built Pivotal180. Those individuals understand the dichotomy of training and teaching, and in it, they saw a gap that underpins not only their style of pedagogy but their business model. We are built to teach, it is the backbone of the business.
Because at the end of the day, whether we call it training or teaching, what we are really doing is helping another human being become more capable, more confident, and more curious about the world around them. And that, I have learned, is worth learning twice over.
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