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 Person
Specification
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!

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 of personal development 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)

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 be
depicted as one where all those involved are engaged in
a connected, explicit and developmental purpose which
helps to simultaneously fulfill an individuals learning
goals and the organisations mission (Mabey and
Salaman 1995:132). =

Processes Model -

to ensure training matches organisational

needs
q Training processes: needs analysis, design, delivery, evaluation ensure alignment

Systematic, Processes model of training

(Stone)

Performance Decit

Due to KSA decit?
Or something else?

TRAINING NEEDS

Write Training Objec/ves:

BEHAVIOR
STANDARDS
CONDITIONS

LEARNING
THEORY:
IS PD STILL THERE?

Reac2on
Learning
Behavior
Results

- Transfer (principles)
- Sequencing

i) Training Needs Analysis

training need = performance deficit (or a gap between
desired performance and actual performance) that is
fixable through training
Danger: waste money on training that cannot possibly fix
a given performance deficit
When confronted with a performance deficit
Engage in detective work, organisational
diagnostics. What are the causes of sub-par
performance?
only performance deficits that are due to KSA deficits
(people dont know how to do the job) can have
training solutions

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? (ie
employees 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.

Training Evaluation
Especially important for strategic training, because it
establishes effectiveness of training and devpt
Kirkpatrick Model: most widely used conceptualisation
Reactions
How do the trainees feel about the training? (Happy
sheets)
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
n Behaviour can be shaped by reward and punishment
(reinforcement)
n Learning is passive: its something that trainers do to
trainees, by reinforcing behaviour
Cognitivism:
n Tendency for the mind to seek (or construct) orderly
patterns
n Learner is active in construction of knowledge

Cognitive Approaches to Learning

Knowledge is constructed, a personal interpretation
An active process; 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 into existing knowledge (so
Gestalts can be tuned, undergo accretion, or even
restructuring)
Aim: not rote learning, but learning of and through
principles
Emphasis on principles to aid transfer

Adult Learning Theory: Andragogy

Amalgam of previous approaches: beyond sterile debate
between behaviourists and cognitivists: each applies to
different types of learning
Malcolm Knowles:
vs Pedagogy (teaching of children)
Vs empty vessel theory 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)

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 be
encouraged 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 of
innovation! And learning!
Learning takes place at work
Value of learning from a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63rQ3S8EHoA

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 craft unions and state
authorities
Constitution and Federal structure each State its own
training system
Reforms of 1980s: goals:
National training system with a Qualifications Framework
allowing 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 Competencebased training

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 assessment methodology
Shift from time-serving to demonstration of
competence
Permits RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)
Flexibility to trainees and learners via
modularisation (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 of
context)
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 and
Taylorist work organisation
CBT methods, and standards atomise the work
process, and abstract form the cognitive, and
gestalt components of skill
Inhibits cognitive learning, and the transfer of skill
decomposition of work obscures connections
precise (behavioural) learning objectives inhibit
incidental learning.
Produces graduates who can know what to do, but
not why. [Problem when work varies, problem
solving, 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 industry
consultations. 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
trainees having 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 assessed
training, 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 its
not 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 served funding model
Assessment
No guarantee of integrity of many
qualifications
Market-based Reforms: really running into trouble now

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