I agree with that in the vast majority of cases, Harold. But to give you an example of where I think training courses work, when I was a student I worked part-time in two centres.

One company trained me "on-the-job", i.e. I sat on the phone with someone beside me. The other had me in a training environment, where they set-up exercises and scenarios that I would face when I got onto the telephone.

I felt far more prepared and confident in the second instance than I did on the first. The time I spent with my fellow trainees in the training environment (which was very social - the trainer understood the value of talking and discussing, not just barking instructions at us) helped me form some very good relationships with them. I felt far more isolated in the first scenario and, as a result, enjoyed the job a lot less.