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Instructional materials enhance the teaching/learning process by exhibiting information necessary to acquire knowledge and skills. Focuses on printed forms of instructional materials and provides detailed information, including examples, on five types of job performance aids, three types of instruction sheets, and two types of modules. Checklists of considerations that affect the quality of finished products are also provided. Job performance aids (JPAs)provide procedural or factual guidance in the performance of tasks. They store essential details in a variety of functional forms for use just before or during task performance. Research shows that JPAs are a cost‐effective supplement or alternative to training. They reduce the time needed to master task performance and facilitate the transfer of learning from the training setting to the job. Instruction sheets assure that all trainees have the same complete and accurate information for performing practical work and for completing assignments. These sheets also help manage large groups of trainees with diverse abilities who are working simultaneously at several different tasks. Modules are carefully structured documents which facilitate self‐directed and self‐paced learning. While their components may vary, modules typically include learning objectives, an introduction, instructional content, directions, learning activities, and test questions with feedback answers. With modules, trainees assume personal responsibility for their progress. Regardless of the care used in their preparation, all types of instructional materials must be evaluated prior to general use. Presents a comprehensive quality control procedure for confirming effectiveness and value. This was prepared to enhance both formal classroom instruction and individual study. Figures, tables, checklists, appendices, and a glossary of keywords and terms, supplement the text in explaining the content.

In the last ten years the UK labour market has undergone a series of significant changes which have important implications for those involved in training. This monograph explains the implications of the growth of part‐time employment before presenting the results from a survey of employers and institutions, such as the MSC, regarding the provision of training for part‐time workers, and makes some comparisons with the situation in other countries. Certain issues are raised which may provide a basis for different policies in the future. The question of whether or not technological change is likely to lead to greater part‐time employment, and in particular more part‐time work by males, is also discussed.

Media coverage of police activities is substantial and makes for “eye‐catching” headlines. Most people in the UK will remember the riots of 1981 and how policemen battled against overwhelming odds. Equally, the story of the young, brave policeman who attempts, and is injured in the process, to arrest treacherous villains, induces waves of sympathy from a probably, very middle‐class public. Best of all, are the stories of corrupted policemen who, detected and apprehended, generate in us all that slight feeling of insecurity which makes for excellent gossip.

Reports the findings and conclusions of a study of five small businesses in the hotel and catering sector which had adopted national vocational qualifications (NVQs). Using an open system model, a comparative case study design and a range of data sources and methods of data collection within each organization, traces the preconditions, processes, outcomes and problems/issues associated with NVQ adoption and implementation. In a small business context, this is shown more likely to be successful where there is an existing training culture and infrastructure; where on‐the‐job training is positive, supportive and monitored; and where there is a senior management NVQ “champion” and an enthusiastic cadre of in‐house trainers and potential assessors. Shows that NVQs give a sharper focus to training activity, improve candidates’ perceived job satisfaction, morale and career prospects; enhance work flexibility and performance; and have a perceived, if hard‐to‐measure payoff in terms of business performance.

The present study used the job-demands and resources (JD-R) framework to understand how the training is transferred to an extreme working context through the analysis of job and personal resources (social support from the leader and colleagues and adaptability). Specifically, the authors tested the mediating role of motivation to transfer in the relationship (1) between the perceived support from the supervisor and colleagues and performance after training and (2) between adaptability and performance in an extreme context of the pandemic crisis – the first peak of COVID-19 in Portugal. Further, an inspection of the factors that predicted knowledge transfer and adaptability under an extreme context was carried out.

To do so, necessary training about the new safety rules regarding the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 was implemented in a healthcare institution as a strategy to help healthcare workers deal with the increasing uncertainty and complexity that was threatening their work. It consisted of three sessions (each with one hour of training) regarding procedures, rules and safety norms. The training occurred in May 2020. Overall, 291 healthcare workers participated in the study and answered one online questionnaire one week after training completion.

The results showed that the motivation to transfer had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between colleagues' and supervisors' support and performance and between adaptability and performance. Additionally, complementary analyses showed that the mediations depended on the levels of self-efficacy in such a way that the indirect relationships were stronger when self-efficacy was higher. Thus, adaptability and support, both from colleagues and the supervisor, are determining factors for knowledge transfer and resultant performance in extreme contexts, such as the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Lastly, the results showed that the most significant predictors of transference were self-efficacy and the motivation to transfer the learned knowledge. On the other hand, self-efficacy, peer support and the opportunity to use the knowledge were the most significant predictors of adaptability.

These findings provide support for the role of employee motivation to transfer as a mechanism connecting both perceived support and adaptability to performance outcomes under extreme working contexts.

This study, conducted in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic context – an extreme and uncertain working context – shows the relevance of both job and individual factors to predict employees' adaptability to such contexts.

We investigate the relationship between job complexity and skill development of adult workers in Europe using the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs Survey. ¹ The results suggest that challenging workplaces in which jobs are designed to include complex tasks that place high demands on workers’ skills also stimulate skill development. Increasing the degree of job complexity has positive and robust effects on the degree of skill development. Skill development is also positively linked to job tenure. The analysis stresses the importance of on-the-job learning and contextual workplace characteristics for adult workers’ skill development.

An attempt is made to illustrate the multi‐faceted and multifarious nature of human resource development worldwide, following a definition of it and a description of how it operates in a number of countries throughout the world, including the US, the EEC countries, India, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The roles and functions of HRD practitioners are examined, and the competences required listed. A short history of the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations is offered and a list of conferences described.

The critical need to actively manage the transfer of training process is apparent from the scope of industrial training and the relapse rate of the trainee. Transfer management consists of a variety of actions before, during and after training by managers of trainees, management development personnel and management trainees to increase the probability of success. Knowledge of the typical barriers to transfer is useful as they can be removed, diminished, converted to positive forces or countered by balancing forces. The final product of a literature review is a set of 95 distinguishable transfer strategies. These form action propositions for transfer of training. An open‐ended survey of 84 human resource development professionals was conducted in which they were asked to report the most important impediments to training transfer. From this list, a set of nine frequently mentioned factors was derived and presented to a group of 36 trainers who ranked the three most powerful forces against transfer as: lack of on‐the‐job reinforcement, interference from the immediate environment and a non‐supportive organisational climate. The importance of transfer and impediments to it are discussed.

The primary purpose of this study is to identify how and where product managers in the pharmaceutical industry receive the training required to undertake their job tasks, and whether or not there is a relationship between the tasks they perform and the training they receive.

The methodology for this study was exploratory and descriptive in nature, and utilized a cross‐sectional survey design. Both descriptive and relational statistics are used to analyze the data.

The key findings reveal that product managers receive the majority of their training on the job, with the rest supported by company‐sponsored training and outside seminars. Product managers do not appear to receive company training in proportion to the frequency with which particular tasks are performed.

The limitations to the study are that the findings are limited to one industry and that training needs are self‐reported.

Managers should not assume that on the job training adequately prepares product managers to do their jobs properly, and training should be an essential part of the product manager's experience. The paper identifies specific areas for future training.

In Australia, as in many other countries, initiatives are constantly being developed which aim to assist school students’ transition into work. One such initiative, which was introduced towards the end of the 1990s, was the introduction of school‐based apprenticeships and traineeships, often referred to by the umbrella term “school‐based new apprenticeships” (SBNAs). Students taking part in these programs, normally in the final two years of schooling (Years 11 and 12), combine part‐time work, study towards a vocational education and training (VET) qualification, and normal attendance at school. This paper reports on the first large‐scale research study of school‐based apprentices and trainees, which was carried out in late 2001 through a survey of students involved in the programs. The survey was carried out in the three Australian States with the highest numbers of school‐based apprentices and trainees, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. The paper commences with a description of the nature of school‐based apprenticeships and a description of their introduction and rapid growth. It then gives an overview of the young people’s jobs, their learning and training, and concludes by discussing four problematic areas.