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This study examines the case of an initial training, called “Dojo”, invented and implemented at a production site in the Czech Republic. It clarifies the initial training program implementation process and offers a conceptual framework for cooperative management of subsidiary activities at the site and firm.

This study conducts an in-depth analysis of qualitative data from the Czech production site over a five-year period. The theoretical base is the theorization and labeling phase of management innovation (MI), the final phase of which legitimizes a new management practice. Interview data, archival data, pictures and financial data are used for the analysis.

To legitimize the Dojo in the operational flow controlled by the site and firm, the Czech production site acquires validation of the Dojo from employees and board members of the Japanese and European headquarters, helping the site build trustful relationships with them. Training programs, process standardization and skills standardization of the workers offer benefits to the trainees, production site and firm.

The authors offer theoretical insights into MI at the subsidiary-level, which past studies have not differentiated at the firm-level. The authors also provide details of the implementation and management of initial training for newly hired blue-collar workers at the production site. The findings complement related literature on human resource management and operational management.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how initial teachers in Japan can develop instructional and thinking skills through lesson study with mentors. It will clarify the point of view in which mentors evaluate the lesson plan, research lessons and kyouzai-kenkyuu of initial teachers.

This study adopts a case analysis that shows how a mentor gives advice to an initial teacher in the post-lesson discussion. In Japanese lesson study, the time schedule of the post-lesson discussion is well structured, so the time for a mentor to state his or her comment is limited to around ten minutes. Mentors try to help initial teachers develop instructional and thinking skills.

From simple problem to high-level cases in which finding the problem of a lesson is difficult, only a highly competent mentor can find the problem and suggest improvements. Mentors need the competency to observe the lesson and the knowledge and skills to improve the lesson.

This paper focusses on how mentors can help develop the kyouzai-kenkyuu understanding of initial teachers. More studies that focus on how mentors can train initial teachers to understand how students learn during lessons are needed.

This paper discloses what Japanese teachers think of lesson plans and kyouzai-kenkyuu and how mentors help develop kyouzai-kenkyuu understanding among initial teachers.

Detailed education, employment and training histories have been constructed for a cohort of 440 male respondents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The employment histories show that most respondents without college degrees have experienced at least one occupational break since entering the labour force. The training histories show that most of those in employment in 1992 have had no formal training for their current occupations. An assessment of whether those who received training before or on entering the labour force have subsequently had more stable employment histories than those who have not shows that this is true of college‐level vocational education but not of high school vocational education or training received in vocational/technical institutes. These findings suggest that the comprehensive provision of entry‐level training for those not college‐bound, as advocated by those promoting vocational education in high schools, cannot be justified in terms of labour market outcomes.

This paper focuses on analysis of the incorporation of a Lesson Study cycle within the university training proposal, as a teaching strategy in initial training in the Infant Education Degree.

Qualitative research was conducted through a case study methodology.

Proposing training strategies based on this methodology encourages both the reconstruction of future teachers' practical knowledge and also adequate professional development from initial training.

The main constraint in the study was the cost-benefit ratio, since this experience has required significant practical and emotional dedication by the people involved, while the expected results have only been partially evident in the students. This would seem to imply that the strategy requires continuity over time in order for future education professionals to take it fully on board.

More continuity in such experiences would be required in order to fully analyse their actual value. To this end, the experiences need to be more closely related to the university curriculum, and there must be greater coordination between the subjects in order to ensure a holistic approach to LS.

This article sets out an LS experience as a collaborative action-research strategy that promotes the reconstruction of students' practical knowledge and their professional development in initial training.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.

Over the past decade, researchers have been increasingly concerned with the effects of training. Whereas Gary Becker stated that employers pay for specific training and employees for general training, it is often argued that employers provide general training as well and that this has a positive effect on labour productivity. So far empirical research does not indicate that only on‐the‐job training is beneficial to the firm and neither that only employees profit form general training. This paper presents a sector model that measures the effect of training on productivity. The sector model developed in this paper has important advantages as it shows that training generally works, but it is not clear whether this is mainly due to on‐the‐job or off‐the‐job training.

The aims of this study were to evaluate fitness levels in a cohort of police trainees and compare these results to other police trainees and the general population.

Retrospective data for 274 male and 152 female police trainees were supplied. Measures included height, body mass and physical appraisal test (PAT; 2.4 km run, vertical jump, push-ups and grip strength) results, assessed twice, prior to commencement of training, separated by several months. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to analyze non-parametric initial and final PAT scores and Mann–Whiney U tests were used to determine variance between groups.

Male trainees were significantly quicker in the run (−12%, p < 0.001), completed more push-ups (+74%, p < 0.001) with greater grip strength (+52% left and +50% right, p < 0.001) when compared to female trainees. Following the second PAT assessment, the significant differences between male and female trainees remained (p < 0.001). Only female trainee 2.4 km run times improved significantly between initial and final PAT (−4%, p = 0.002).

When compared to the general population from which they were drawn and to other law enforcement trainees, the police trainees in this study were quicker, more powerful and stronger. While there was no loss of fitness between initial and final PAT performance, a conditioning program, spanning the periods between initial and final PAT may be of benefit to increase fitness prior to training commencement especially for female trainees who were generally less fit than, yet must complete the same training as, male trainees.

Previous articles discussed the changing role of central Governments in vocational education and training, and treated in depth the devolution of training responsibility to local authorities and the ways in which the local authorities are proactively responding to this challenge. There is, however, a major role for central Governments in linking vocational education and training policy with policies aimed at overall economic development and productivity and the stimulation of employment. Such policy issues and strategies are discussed in this final section.

The paper aims to study manpower dynamics at offshore and onsite location for maintenance project, which are transferred to offshore location in a phase-wise manner. The purpose of the paper is to find good values of onsite–offshore team strength, the number of hours of communication between onsite and offshore teams for smooth transfer of software maintenance project to offshore location.

This study uses system dynamics simulation approach to study manpower allocation at onsite and offshore locations to transfer the maintenance work to offshore location in a gradual manner. The authors consulted 13 experts from Indian software outsourcing industry during the model construction and validation.

The simulation results show that the complexity of maintenance project has an insignificant effect on offshore migration. The maintenance work transfer should start with initial onsite team strength higher than that of required for ticket solving and project. The initial offshore team strength should be based on training capacity available at the onsite location. The higher attrition rate at an offshore is detrimental for offshore migration.

The implication of the study is in the development of a broad framework of software maintenance work transfer to offshore locations for Indian software outsourcing projects. As the study is based on expert opinion in the context of India, it cannot be generalized for outsourcing scenarios elsewhere.

The software project manager can use the findings to get more insight into maintenance project offshore migration and divide the software team between onsite and offshore location.

The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the manpower composition at onsite and offshore locations for software maintenance project during the migration phase.

The idea of reflective practice, a concept that is currently in vogue in educational circles, is taken up in this chapter. Having to do with training and research practices in the French community in Belgium, this chapter revolves around two major themes: an overview of training as approached in French-speaking Belgium and a summary of teaching and research issues addressed by researchers in this particular part of Europe. In the final analysis, important matters having to do with socialization and intelligibility and their relationship to reflective practice are probed. These considerations are of major significance to educators worldwide.