Management of Training Programmes - Training Function

Training

Training is that organised process concerned with the acquisition of capability, or the maintenance of existing capability. (Pepper, 1992)


Development

Where the objective is to acquire a set of capabilities, which will equip a person to do a job a some time in the predictable future, which is not within his present ability, that person is often said to undergo a process of development. (Pepper, 1992)

Responsibility for Training

The manager of any work area is responsible, amongst other things, for producing a planned volume of work to defined standards. This work is done by the employees in that area, or by machines or equipment operated by the employees.

The manager must, for purely practical reasons of control of standards and quality be responsible for the work done by the employees, responsible for supervising them in doing this work and responsible for ensuring that anyone who needs correction or basic instruction gets it, and gets it to a level consistent with the quality and safety requirements of the actual work place, the equipment and the product. (Pepper, 1992)

Thus the manager of an employee is responsbile for training him.


Training Opportunities

Common situations in company which require involvement of training department.

1. New recruits to the company

2. Transfers within the company (transferee new to the job).

3. Promotion

4. Installation of new plant or equipment

5. Introduction of new procedure

6. New standards, rules and practices

7. New relationships in organization (Redesign of organization)

8. Identified deficiencies in relation to maintenance of standards, adaptability, and managerial skills.

9. Retirement and redundancy



Training is a collaborative service


Training is a collaborative service: It does things for other functions, to suit the purposes of other functions, and does them with the other functions.

Training which is not fully collaborative is likely to be sterile, ineffective.

Training has to help employees do better in their jobs.

The practice of basics of techniques acquired in the training programs occurs in the job only. A new techniqe can be used by an operator only after the permission of his superior.

Hence there has to be an agreement between operating managers and training officers regarding the concepts and techniques covered in a training program.

To arrive at this agreement training officer has to sit with the operating managers and do the training needs analysis. Based on the accepted training need statement, the training officer has to come out with a training proposal, which is again discussed with the operating manager for his approval.

The approved training program is organized by the department with the involvement of external trainers, internal operating managers and trainers of the training department.

There has to be review of the program with the trianees first and then with operating managers. Then the training department has to review the program for using the learnings in developing and conducting future programs.


References


Pepper, Alan D., Managing the Training and Development Function, 2nd Ed, Gower, 1992


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