Learning is not something we stop doing when we enter a career. In fact, for many people, the learning curve steepens after university as the intricacies of their chosen profession become apparent after years studying what were ultimately just the basics.
Formulating is just such a profession; with the amount of new products and new technology entering the marketplace, the need to learn is ever-present. But the way in which the information is delivered and its relevance to the location in question are two very important factors to the overall quality of the training. Many of the cosmetics trade shows around the world incorporate training and education elements into the event. These are excellent ways to get to grips with new products and offer a tactile, first-hand experience to people that leaflets and websites are unable to give. However, a demonstration on a stand or on a Powerpoint projection can only go so far towards ensuring a formulator has all the knowledge and skills needed to use a new ingredient effectively when they return to their lab. This shortfall can be particularly acute when, for instance, a European ingredient company is looking to demonstrate a new product to South East Asian formulators, where there could be considerable differences in the types of equipment available to each party and variation in other raw materials to be used in a given formulation.
Lost in translation
A good analogy for the problem is to think of someone showing another person how to bake a cake. You can give someone the recipe or give them a quick demonstration of the rudimentary steps, but ultimately when they take home the information you have given them, you have no way of controlling the type of oven, mixer, or the grade of flour or butter used to re-create the recipe. They may have put the high quality chocolate you gave them into the mixture, but because all the other ingredients and variables were not quite right, the end product was far removed from the original. The workshop format of FormulaCare 2011 (March 17 and 18, Jakarta) is designed to reduce these differences by providing a controlled environment in which new products can be demonstrated properly, allowing formulators to see and feel for themselves how they should be correctly incorporated into formulations. This way of teaching and learning aligns with current studies into the human brain’s ability to learn; in particular which senses have the greatest bearing on the process (Fig. 1).
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