Thanks for sharing this! All three of these seem valuable.
A couple questions about the EA training one:
You give the examples of operations skills, communication skills, and burnout prevention. These all seem valuable but not differentially valuable to EA. Are you thinking that this would be training for EA-specific things like cause prioritization or that they would do non-EA-specific things but in an EA way? If the latter, could you elaborate why an EA-specific training organization like this would be better than people just going to Toastmasters or one of the other million existing professional development firms?
Sometimes when people say that they wish there were more EA’s with some certain skill, I think they actually mean that they wish there were more EA’s who had credibly demonstrated that skill. When I think of EA-specific training (e.g. cause prioritization) I have a hard time imagining a 3 week course[1] which substantially improves someone’s skills, but it seems a little more plausible to me that people could work on a month-long “capstone project” which is evaluated by some person whose endorsement of their work would be meaningful. (And so the benefit someone would get from attending is a certification to put on their resume, rather than some new skill they have learned.) Have you considered “EA certification” as opposed to training?
Your intuitions are right here that these skills are not unique to EA, and I am generally thinking of skills that are not exclusive to EA. I would expect this training organization not to create a ton of original content so much as to compile, organize and prioritize existing content. For example, the org might speak to ten people in EA operations roles, and based on that information find the best existing book and online course that if absorbed would set someone up for that role. So I see the advantage as being, more time to select and combine existing resources than an individual would have. I also think that pretty small barriers (e.g. price of a professional course, not having peers who share the same goals, lack of confidence that this content is useful for the specific jobs they are aiming for) currently stop people from doing professional training. And that the many common paths to professional training (e.g. PhD programs) are too slow to readily adapt to the needs of EA. I would generally expect the gaps in EA to move around quite a bit year to year.
I think certification or proof of ability is a non-trivial part. The second half of our Incubation Program puts the earlier training into action through working on projects that are publicly shareable and immediately useful for the charity. I would guess that a training focused organization would also have a component like a capstone project at the end of each course.
I would also note that I think just giving EAs the ability to coordinate and connect with each other while learning seems pretty valuable. A lot of EAs are currently ruled out of top jobs in the space due to not being “trusted” or known by others in the EA movement. I think providing more ins for people to get connected seems quite valuable and would not happen with e.g. a local Toastmasters.
Thanks for sharing this! All three of these seem valuable.
A couple questions about the EA training one:
You give the examples of operations skills, communication skills, and burnout prevention. These all seem valuable but not differentially valuable to EA. Are you thinking that this would be training for EA-specific things like cause prioritization or that they would do non-EA-specific things but in an EA way? If the latter, could you elaborate why an EA-specific training organization like this would be better than people just going to Toastmasters or one of the other million existing professional development firms?
Sometimes when people say that they wish there were more EA’s with some certain skill, I think they actually mean that they wish there were more EA’s who had credibly demonstrated that skill. When I think of EA-specific training (e.g. cause prioritization) I have a hard time imagining a 3 week course[1] which substantially improves someone’s skills, but it seems a little more plausible to me that people could work on a month-long “capstone project” which is evaluated by some person whose endorsement of their work would be meaningful. (And so the benefit someone would get from attending is a certification to put on their resume, rather than some new skill they have learned.) Have you considered “EA certification” as opposed to training?
I think there are weeks long courses like “learn how to comply with this regulation” which are helpful, but those already exist outside EA.
Your intuitions are right here that these skills are not unique to EA, and I am generally thinking of skills that are not exclusive to EA. I would expect this training organization not to create a ton of original content so much as to compile, organize and prioritize existing content. For example, the org might speak to ten people in EA operations roles, and based on that information find the best existing book and online course that if absorbed would set someone up for that role. So I see the advantage as being, more time to select and combine existing resources than an individual would have. I also think that pretty small barriers (e.g. price of a professional course, not having peers who share the same goals, lack of confidence that this content is useful for the specific jobs they are aiming for) currently stop people from doing professional training. And that the many common paths to professional training (e.g. PhD programs) are too slow to readily adapt to the needs of EA. I would generally expect the gaps in EA to move around quite a bit year to year.
I think certification or proof of ability is a non-trivial part. The second half of our Incubation Program puts the earlier training into action through working on projects that are publicly shareable and immediately useful for the charity. I would guess that a training focused organization would also have a component like a capstone project at the end of each course.
I would also note that I think just giving EAs the ability to coordinate and connect with each other while learning seems pretty valuable. A lot of EAs are currently ruled out of top jobs in the space due to not being “trusted” or known by others in the EA movement. I think providing more ins for people to get connected seems quite valuable and would not happen with e.g. a local Toastmasters.