New Job Self-Service Training

Is this a new trend where companies sit new employees in front of a computer and tell them to train themselves via computer based training? I can see where using this for part of the training information can be helpful; however, I do not suggest this be the majority of the training program.

On September 19th, I started a new job and, what is scheduled to be, 6 weeks of training. So far, about 80% of it has been self taught. Don't get me wrong, I don't need constant supervision and I like to have some time to review and learn on my own but we spent 6+ days working on the same set of curriculum. It took me less than 1/2 a day to get through the computer based training so the rest of the time I was left to "practice" in the system and find my own way to learn other things about the system we will  be using. A couple of us actually started making copies of live purchase orders from the other reps so we could practice what we will be doing once we get out of training.

I don't know about anyone else but we need more training intervention to keep the entire group on track and at the same pace. Because we weren't all progressing at the same level some of us had more "free time" than others. Basically, we covered entering a sales order and the various steps and processes involved in a new order. It really wasn't something that I think needed a weeks worth of practice.

Do we need to practice to learn? Yes!
Will we benefit from practicing the same 3-4 steps for a week? No!
Will we make mistakes when we go live? Probably.

We need more real life examples of what we should expect when we get out on the floor and start dealing with customers. We had to beg for examples of what would be on the first test and our training refuses to even give us a clue about what is going to be on the 2nd test on Tuesday.

Monday (1 day) will be spent going over a step that we've been practicing on our own all week. As if we've never seen or done it before. I'm just a little confused about the goals here and what is expected. I think if I could sit with someone that has live customers and experience I would learn more about what happens in a real day for them.

Unfortunately, the other reps are new as well, just here a few months, so there aren't any real stable folks to fall  back on and observe. I really hope things calm down and start to make more sense soon. I can do CBT's all day long but until I can actually see what a real request or customer interaction is like I am blind to my new job.

Hoping for patience because we've still got 4 more weeks to go!