What are your thoughts about the assumption that training programs need to be designed so that students can learn a good deal more about themselves as well as acquire theoretical knowledge?

In the field of education, for example, the idea that a "one size fits all" approach is not very effective has become more and more accepted in recent years. When people are learning something, it needs to matter to them, and it needs to make sense in their own lives and in terms of their own personal and/or professional philosophies. In order to tailor educational programs, the teacher or trainer must look for ways to help students relate new information to their own lives and selves. As a result, the students ought to learn more about themselves in the process.
If the student or trainee is not engaging with theoretical material on a personal, local level, then they are never going to truly internalize it or truly understand it deeply. It is one thing to hear something and another thing to really learn it. One can memorize anything by rote—the organs and their functions within the body, different teaching strategies for reluctant readers, how to recognize and treat someone's depression—but if one does not feel that this information is necessary and important, that it serves some crucial function in one's own life (and, perhaps, others' lives), then how much will this knowledge really be of use?
Theoretical knowledge—information regarding more abstract processes of the mind or problem-solving—is important, certainly. If we are not exposed to new ideas, new ways of thinking critically, and new language with which to describe and explain and analyze our thoughts, then we grow more slowly. However, exposure alone is not effective as exposure paired with a reason to care about this new information and knowledge. The way to achieve this pairing, which makes knowledge feel more relevant and vital, is to appeal to the person and their experiences, values, and goals. Doing this helps the individual to "buy in" to the new material, to accept its importance in their own life, and to find ways to creatively implement that new knowledge in tangible, real-life ways.