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MGMT2718
Human Resource Management
Lecture 10
Learning and Development and
Training in Australia
Links to earlier (and later) material
Strategic Training a subset of SHRM
Eliminate non-strategic training > but training is also
an element of public policy > also broader issue of
workforce capability
Processes model: - training needs analysis (TNA)
Link to Job Analysis > Job Description and PersonSpecification
Recruitment and Selection > build or buy
Individual firm can buy but not ALL individual
firms!
This leads to market failure the starting point of
training policy!
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Lecture Structure
1. Some Basic Concepts
2. Strategic Training and the Phases of Training
3.Approaches to Learning and Training Delivery
Methods
4.
Training in Australia
1. Some Basic Concepts
Training
changing the behaviours and capacities of employees to
achieve relatively immediate business goals and needs of
the organisation
Development
is a longer-term process. It might also be mixed up with
goals ofpersonaldevelopment with a humanistic tone
Education
liberal arts model, in which knowledge is pursued for its
own sake
Skill
Outcome of learning
VET (Vocational Education and Training)
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1. Strategic Training and the Phases of
Training Key idea: training should be targeted on a firms
Strategic business needs
a strategic approach to training and development can bedepicted as one where all those involved are engaged ina connected, explicit and developmental purpose whichhelps to simultaneously fulfill an individuals learninggoals and the organisations mission (Mabey andSalaman 1995:132). =
Processes Model- to ensure training matches organisationalneeds
! Training processes: needs analysis, design, delivery, evaluation -ensure alignment
Systematic, Processes model of training
(Stone)
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THEORY:
- Transfer (principles)- Sequencing
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Training Needs Analysis (cont)
Task/Job analysis Output: precise description of the work activities,
including all the tasks performed by the employee,
and the KSAs required to complete the
Person Analysis
Compare performance to PD/PS
Are performance deficits due to absence of KSAs? (ieemployees dont know how to do the job?)
OR to (lack of) Motivation? Or something else?
Organisation Analysis
Check for congruence between organisational
strategy and proposed training
How important is the job?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifmZ6k8gggE
Training Design (and development)
Training needs (identified KSA deficits) are translated into
learning objectives
Writing Learning Objectives
behavioural terms emphasised
Behaviours
Standards
Conditions Objectives focus the training activity and make it visible
Utilise learning theory in training design: ie knowledge of
how people learn? (next section)
Basic idea: align training objectives to knowledge of how
people learn in choice of training methods
Output: Lesson Plan.
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Training Evaluation
Especially important for strategic training, because itestablishes effectiveness of training and devpt
Kirkpatrick Model: most widely used conceptualisation
Reactions
How do the trainees feel about the training? (Happysheets)
Learning
What did they learn? (Assessment)
Behavour
Did their behaviour change as a result? (Transfer) Results
Did the training fix the performance deficit?
Why do firms not evaluate training?
3. Approaches to Learning: Formal, Informal,
Social, Adult Contested field of theory and practice basic division
between Behaviourists and Cognitivists and mixes of
each.
Behaviourism: learning takes place when behaviour
changes
" Behaviour can be shaped by reward and punishment
(reinforcement)
" Learning ispassive: its something that trainers do to
trainees, by reinforcing behaviour
# Cognitivism:
" Tendency for the mind to seek (or construct) orderly
patterns
" Learner is active in construction of knowledge
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Cognitive Approaches to Learning
Knowledge isconstructed
, a
personal interpretation
An activeprocess; meaning is dependent on past
experience
Learning problem can be structured by the teacher so its
principles are easily accessible by student and well
organised
Presentation of material should move from simple to
complex, to create a meaningful whole
New material should fit intoexisting knowledge (so
Gestalts can be tuned, undergo accretion, or even
restructuring)
Aim: not rotelearning, but learning of and through
principles
Emphasis on principlesto aid transfer
Adult Learning Theory: Andragogy
# Amalgam of previous approaches: beyond steriledebatebetween behaviourists and cognitivists: each applies todifferent types of learning
# Malcolm Knowles:
# vs Pedagogy (teaching of children)
# Vs empty vesseltheory of learning (constructionist)
#Principles: Adult
needs
# The need to know
# The need to be self directing
# Greater volume and quality of experience
# Readiness to learn (motivation)
# Adults have a problem-solving orientation to learning(and different learning styles)
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Social Learning Theory
# People learn by observing others, and in social interaction
# Reinforcement Theory - via understandings of others
behaviours
# Learning can take place without any observable change in
behaviour
Communities of Practice
Collective knowledge contained in a community, rather than
canonical knowledge (declarative)
CoPs are repositories of knowledge and can beencouraged to generate innovation.
Communities of Practice (Cont)
Brown and Duguid: > work of Julian Orr
CoPs of photocopier repairers
Management - seeking to deskill and control > required
mechanics to use repair manuals which were no good
Necessitate working outside the manual
The breakfast was lost time but it was a source ofinnovation! And learning!
Learning takes place at work
Value of learning from a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63rQ3S8EHoA
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Training Methods: Traditional vs New
Presentational Lectures - Videos
Hands On
On Job Training: Sitting Next to Nellie
Or Formalised eg through public training system and
CBT (next)
Self-directed learning
Role plays, modelling many others
Apprenticeships
Simulations - expensive Group
Adventure learning; Action learning
New Heavily Technology Dependent
4) Training Policy: Australia
Former stable training system based on regulated trades
apprenticeships, strong role for craftunions and state
authorities
# Constitution and Federal structure each State its own
training system
Reforms of 1980s: goals:
National training system with a Qualifications Frameworkallowing labour market mobility
Employers to contribute to training costs via a Levy
Qualifications for those excluded from the system,
particularly women, the disadvantaged
Skills-based career ladders and pay rises presupposed
skill recognition technology adopted Competence-
based training
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CBT as Outcomes-Based and behaviourist
Competence is a description of action, behaviour or
outcome in a form that is capable of demonstration,observation and assessment
ability to perform to standard expected in
employment (NTB, and many others)
It is assessed through observation of behaviour
Claims: valid and reliable assessmentmethodology
Shift from time-serving to demonstration ofcompetence
Permits RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)
Flexibility to trainees and learners viamodularisation (multiple entry and exit points)
transferable qualifications for flexible labour market.
(OECD)
Competence-Based Training: The Standards
Model
Competency Standards: Components
Unit (statement of activity/job description
Element (identify components of a unit)
Performance Criteria (the standards to which the job
elements need to be preformed)
Range Statement (specifies relevant components ofcontext)
Evidence Guide (specifies relevant components for
assessment purposes)
Bundled into Training Packages qualifications, pathways
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Critique of Behavioural Concept of Competence
CBT is reductionist - lends itself to deskilling andTaylorist work organisation
CBT methods, and standards atomise the workprocess, and abstract form the cognitive, andgestalt components of skill
Inhibits cognitive learning, and the transfer of skill
decomposition of work obscures connections
precise (behavioural) learning objectives inhibitincidental learning.
Produces graduates who can know whatto do, butnot why. [Problem when work varies, problemsolving, diagnosis]
Australia: Training Reform
Overall trends: implement training system based on market
design principles
Problems of assessment and training quality and
qualifications validity still with the system 25 years later!
Structure of the system
Federal Structure with separate State training systems
Skills Councils develop qualifications out of industryconsultations. They play no role in curriculum design,
which is left to RTOs
Only Registered Training Organisations can deliver and
assess Nationally Recognised Training materials
Attacks on TAFEs. Opened public funding to
contestability.
> Privatisation of training.
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Quality of Training and Assessment
Ongoing issue, since 2000 Senate Inquiry, and others
traineeshaving wages cut, used as cheap labour, yet
receiving qualifications, while RTO/Employer gets
taxpayer subsidies
Serious fraud by some, especially Employment Agencies
linked to RTOs
Extent not known and difficult to research bad apples?
Or systemic?
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2008) policy
Concerns re unethical behaviour of some RTOs,
certifying competence inappropriately
Employers then may have to do extra training
Criticism of a training market: assessment standards get
driven down to the lowest common denominator
The Training Market
Varying degrees of marketisation in different states. Now
both Federal and most States accept market design.
Competition between training providers for contracts with
trainees or employers and government funding
Lowering of standards > race to the bottom
Some players had an obvious(Senate Committee)
conflict of interest, when they delivered and assessedtraining, as well requiring that training if they were
employment agencies as well
Existing employees were sometimes converted to
trainees (put on training wage), and giventraining
Often they did not see a trainer or assessor, yet were
deemed competent > degrading of qualifications
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/
s3583867.htm
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Conclusion
Examined training within the HRM processes model. But itsnot just a firm level issue, its a public policy issue
Serious challenges face Australian training policy:
Political structural
Conceptual
CBT and Skill Recognition and Definition; skill
levels, grades
Tensions with time servedfunding model
Assessment
No guarantee of integrityof manyqualifications
Market-based Reforms: really running into trouble now