Organisation may provide training and development internally, externally or in combination to make a competent workforce. Poaching or buying is also possible by the amount saved from training and development or may change the process by adopting technological measures. This decision of providing training or not and in which way depends on factors like state policies, laws, national and sectoral cultures etc.
Political Economy of skill formation
Organisations like OECD, ILO and others have emphasized upon Jobs Strategy and training for upgrading workforce skills. They have emphasized the need of VET (Vocational Education and Training). Sectoral and national differences arise in skill development. While German workers are considered to be more skilled adding value to the production process, their lesser specialization causes difficulty in cross-functional development. Americans are known to have more skilled labor than unskilled through training and Europeans have more intermediate skill labor force. Training in American sense to increase the level of education and skill may not necessarily create immediate jobs. Skills mismatches are common as a result of employer reluctance to provide training and educational provision insufficiently adapted to the needs of the labour market. Hence it is important to resist the temptation of seeing training as ‘good’ and more training as ‘better.’ Training must be adapted to the needs of the individual and the organization if it is to deliver the benefits intended.
Training
Training is usually to maintain the requisite competency for wok for new employees but also regular training is required for all. Training includes “cognitive learning” (knowledge-application of new concepts) and “behavioural learning” (skill-physical ability to act). With some simplification, two key dimensions of VET systems allow an adequate typology: the focus of skill formation (workplace or school) and the regulation of the VET system (state or market). While French system is focused on state vocational schools, German system is focussed on workplace skill formation. Some market focused training is specific than general and may not be for the overall development. Training involves three processes: analysis of needs, development of provision (structure and methods), and evaluation (reaction level, learning level, behavioural level, result level).
Development
The key distinction between development and training is that development involves a wider range of activities with less specific ends than training. Training is designed with specific learning outcomes that form the basis for examination of the skills acquired: an operator who has received the requisite training should be able to use a milling machine to produce test pieces within the tolerance required, for example. Development is focused more on the individual than the occupation and is concerned with longer-term personal growth and career movement. HRD programs are designed for the same. Initially in UK while all received training, development was meant only for managers. It had different aspects like job rotation, learning by experience etc.
Competence
Ability or capability to do work to a certain standard. It refers to key qualifications. It comes from the behavioural studies of those who perform better than others, What traits are required in a job to maintain high standard and efficiency. Often competence based training approach is followed in firms. Cognitive competence, functional competence and social competence is delivered in France through higher secondary curricula. Competence based approach is criticized for being context independent as in different socio-cultural environment the competence for the same job may differ from person to person. Tacit knowledge is more specific to individual and can’t be easily generalized.
Future of Training and Development
Environment is changing fast. One solution for all may not be possible. Training can’t be projected as panacea for all problems Supply side improvement may still not solve the demand problem. There are cases like in Turkey where the graduate and skilled unemployment is more than the unskilled unemployment. Although this is agreed upon that training and development is required in modern world to improve skills time to time.
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गुड्डू रंगीला
Knowledge Partner
Charcha Kendra
