"The professor sent you to the library to please educate yourself?" lol sounds like graduate school.

I don't think you're understanding the situation correctly. The job in question requires a certain skill and OP has sent the employee to a third party to receive training in that skill before they begin training how to use that skill the way the business requires. It's like a restaurant asking you to get a food safety certificate before you can start work as a cook. The restaurant doesn't provide that training, you have to go to a 3rd party to get it. That's what's happening here except the 3rd party is multiple online courses that are specifically designed for "self-teaching".

@aleppke I understand. But I would never eat at a restaurant that outsources the food safety regulation training to an online video. Wouldn't be legal where I live either. Online courses designed for self-teaching are no replacement for actual training. They can be a good addition and they maybe (my personal opinion is different) substitute for books, but even books on their own are not training. Only training is training. That's why it's called a trainee, not a videoee. They should receive training, not videos.

@alephzero "If a trainee can't function without a personal tutor, get rid of them and hire one who can." If somebody can function without a personal tutor, they surely surpassed the trainee stage, don't they? Why would you hire somebody as a trainee that doesn't need training? That's commonly called an employee.

I'm trying to address this elephant myself, and learn. The problem is, I was left alone learning this job, and that is also how i have learned development. I have no training to be a mentor for juniors or trainees.

Base of nearly everything I know about SQL Server (except the theoretical or really simple commands I learned in uni) comes from a one day long one-on-one training with my first mentor on the first day of my first job. He first evaluated my knowledge then proceeded with showing me things I didn't know. After that he assigned me exercises to do on my own but his first nudge really helped. At the end of the week I was able to do some small tasks on my own confidently.

@aleppke: "Third party" is misleading. There is a massive difference between a video repository and an actual training. If that restaurant sent their trainee cook into self-study for food safety and considers that the best approach, I would massively question that restaurant's dedication to their employees' approach to food safety. How can a trainee ever know they know enough, by their own judgment? Dunning-Kruger massively applies here. Some people will never feel like they know enough. Others feel that way well before they should

@anonymousdotnetdeveloper666: "I made it work, so they will have to as well" is not a good approach. It's the reason why people with bad childhoods become indifferent to what kind of parent they end up being. There is an underlying arrogant tone to your argument that suggests you've done everything perfectly and that you couldn't have done it any better if someone had guided you, and therefore others shouldn't need guidance. First of all, even if you learned it perfectly, that doesn't mean others will. Second, you are blind to your own imperfections and are not [..]

[..] an objective judge of whether there are things you don't know or don't do right. The Dunning-Kruger effect makes you unable to objectively evaluate your own skill, and therefore unable to judge whether your way of having to learn by yourself leads to the best outcome or not. By not bothering to improve the process (by providing guidance and actual training), you are perpetuating any imperfection inherent to having to figure it all out yourself.

@Flater Thanks for the input! I'm definitely trying to take on a different approach than just leaving her to her own devices learning things - i know this was slow and ineffective, that's why I'm here asking for advice

@anonymousdotnetdeveloper666 I added a paragraph, because it would have been too much to just put into a comment.

@nvoigt good points, the best option would be to always hire professionals that don't need hand-holding, but not an option in this case. I think i need to have a discussion with my boss about taking a course myself.

I upvoted your answer hours ago, but I'd do it again if I could for your added "train the trainer" advice

Hello. Is there a way to contact you? I'm in Hannover frequently and it seems we're doing similar things professionally. I'd enjoy to compare notes some time.

I don't know what era you're living in but that's not how universities work. The instructors do little more than read off slides and assign you coursework. Learning how to do development is all self taught.

@aleppke Except it's not simply a case of watching a food safety video - it's more like the whole of chef school, by the sound of it. And you don't learn that from a video, you learn it by getting your knives out and getting food actually cooking, and having someone watch what you're doing and tell you what you're doing right and wrong. The OP's comments here are very encouraging though - approaching it from the point of view of "how do I be a better mentor?" is lovely to see.

Can you call my boss and explain this concept to him?

tl;dr: You want her to be the very best, like she never was. To catch her mistakes is your real test; to train her is your cause...

@Flater The Dunning-Kruger effect should only really affect anonymousdotnetdeveloper666's ability to evaluate their own skill if they are, in fact, incompetent. I see no reason to just assume that that's the case.