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The training needs assessment is a significant activity for the training and development function. A human resource generalist or a specialist should be proficient in performing a training needs assessment. The purpose of this paper is to explain the training and development function in the Islamic banking sector and how the needs assessment of Islamic banking fits into the process, followed by an in‐depth look at the core concepts and levels involved in conducting a training needs assessment.

A research design is the structure for investigation and way of answering the research question. The authors have conducted this research under the umbrella of quantitative paradigm, using the cross‐sectional way of obtaining responses as it saves time and cost, and the strategy adopted for data collection was “survey questionnaire technique”. In this study, Performance Analysis. Job Analysis, Career Development and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities were taken as independent variables and Training Needs Assessment as the dependent variable. The sample size of 100 employees was selected without any preference among the employees. Random sampling technique was used and appropriate stratification was undertaken to represent both male and female.

This study was conducted to know about training need assessment in Islamic banking in Pakistan. The authors found that the process of needs assessment identifies more than one training need; the training manager, working with management, prioritizes the training based on the urgency of the need (timeliness); the extent of the need (how many employees need to be trained); and the resources available. Also, the authors learned that training needs assessment is more crucial for performance analysis and for job analysis. Based on this information, the training manager can develop the instructional objectives for the training and development program.

The paper's findings will be beneficial for the training and development sector of Islamic banking. The results of the study would help training and development practitioners, showing how better planning and implementation of the training need assessment process could save their costs and time.

This research sets out to examine how the process for developing a training needs analysis tool could influence organisational change.

The organisation that is the subject of this research is a large, complex health system which is in transition from a traditional bureaucratic, hierarchy with a command and control management style to a more participative, people centred approach. A processual, organisation development, action research‐based approach to the development of a training needs analysis process was taken in the study so that the changes desired in the organisation could be modelled in the first instance and secondly, in order to learn and understand more about what works and does not in order to continuously develop and progress the change agenda. In order to do this a parallel structure was established through which to progress the process which was tracked in an action research process. In addition, a series of interviews were conducted with top and senior management in order to ascertain their views about the process, its necessity, roles in relation to it, its potential benefits and how to introduce the process across the organisation.

A number of key points emerged from the research: first, the culture and change issues arising during the development of the learning and development needs analysis process were very significant. Second, the development and piloting of the needs analysis process needed to be approached as a change management process. Third, linking the needs analysis process with existing organisational processes was a key factor in the success of the process and created a strategic dimension. Finally, in a large, complex organisation a balance must be struck between standardisation and customisation of the needs analysis process to allow for the different structures, subcultures and levels of readiness in the organisation.

This research highlighted the significant impact the dynamics of hierarchy and the legacy of a bureaucratic, autocratic system has on the way a system operates and how people react to change and participation.

The process of management, and the management of information as an essential element of general managerial practice, is addressed from the perspective of the manager. Information has always been a key element in the performance of a business and the effectiveness of management, and information technology can now transform the use of this information to give managers substantial benefits in business planning and decision making. It is considered that information must be integrated into an organisation′s overall management and planning system rather than being controlled by specialist IT professionals and that the manager has to be responsible for: people, their motivation and training; business systems, culture and environment; and the organisation′s data resource. The ways in which business information processes can be analysed and modelled are reviewed and it is explained that information models can enable a better understanding of the organisation by showing it in a new and sometimes enlightening way. Some of the many complex issues associated with managing the change process and achieving successful implementation of the technologies are considered.

How often have you witnessed the design and administration of a training programme because the “manager” of a department thought training was needed? Or, the training department offered courses because it was “traditional” and the organisation needs to train because other organisations are offering the programmes. It is my estimation that this approach to training often tends to be the rule rather than the exception.

This paper aims to review the relevant literature on training needs assessment (TNA) with an objective to provide users/beneficiaries of TNA with the understanding of its growing concept, multiple uses (outcomes), and valuing these uses (antecedents).

To conduct the literature review on uses of TNA, the authors used the systematic search comprising four stages: selection of appropriate search terms such as training, needs assessment, needs analysis, training needs assessment, and training needs analysis; carrying out search in established databases such as EBSCOhost, Emerald, JSTOR, SpringerLink, and Wiley‐Blackwell; initial sample filtering (relevance‐based); and further sample filtering (access‐based). Based on this review, a conceptual framework for examining the forward and backward linkages between TNA and nine human resource management and development areas is proposed for further examination.

This paper highlights training plans, goal setting, employee development, managing change, career development, knowledge, skills, and attitude, learning motivation, cost effectiveness, and performance appraisal as nine major human resource management and development areas revealing different uses of TNA. This gives an appropriate place to the expanding view of TNA.

This paper offers important implications for human resource professionals. Their learning about multiple uses of TNA can help them attain comprehensive solutions of varied organisational problems.

This paper attempts to make a significant contribution towards understanding the growing concept of TNA by expanding the long‐established way of looking at it through increasing its potential effects and subsequently enhancing its purposes and uses for both training and non‐training initiatives.

An updated version of the original (1985) text, the book covers all aspects of marketing and selling bank services: the role of marketing; behaviour of customers; intelligence, planning and organisation; product decisions; promotion decisions; place decisions; price decisions; achieving sales. Application questions help to focus the readers' minds on key issues affecting practice.

Although English for academic purposes (EAP) courses are vital components of engineering disciplines in the universities of Iran, studies investigating engineering students' English language needs are infrequent, and even more infrequent are studies comparing how the students of different engineering disciplines vary in their English language needs. Research demonstrates that students of different disciplines have different language needs, which requires competency in different language skills (Soruç et al., 2018). However, in the majority of Iranian universities, students of different engineering disciplines are taught similar subskills, through similar teaching methodologies and textbooks. With the twofold purpose of identification and comparison of the students' language needs and weaknesses, this study focuses on the perceptions of Iranian students of electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels of their present language abilities and target-situation language needs.

Online surveys regarding language needs and self-assessments were completed by 194 undergraduate students and 189 postgraduate students studying at Sharif University.

While only educational level was found to have a significant effect on the perceptions of the respondents of their target needs, both educational level and discipline had a significant effect on the perceptions of the students of their present level of language proficiency. Furthermore, almost equal attention to the four language skills were considered necessary by the respondents, who also held that the number of credits devoted to the EAP courses was insufficient. A further finding was that the majority of the undergraduates required that the EAP courses be oriented toward English for specific purposes (ESP), whereas almost half of the postgraduates preferred that the EAP classes be geared toward general English.

Researchers have so far analyzed the language needs of students of a number of academic disciplines. This study adds to the existing literature of needs-analysis by comparing the engineering students' present abilities and target language needs. This study is different from the existing publications on language needs-analysis in two ways. First, through a comparative perspective, a profile of engineering students' language needs is obtained, which can serve as a new database for curriculum developers and material designers of engineering programs. Second, investigating whether the students' perceptions of their language needs are affected by their educational levels and disciplines is a topic for which there is little information at present.

Reports on a study of current and past training literature which suggests that, to be effective and to isolate both training needs and those problems having other, non‐trainable solutions, training must be preceded by a needs analysis. Proposes a needs assessment model to illustrate an optimum needs assessment process, and compares this model with the Ontario Government′s “Ontario Skill” (OS) programme, a multi‐million dollar, provincially‐funded training scheme. If, as the literature suggests, needs assessment must preclude training, then it is likely that OS monies are being wasted, as under the current administrative system it is virtually impossible to conduct in‐depth assessments. Suggests ways in which needs assessment can be improved, by shifting the burden from the Government′s consultants onto specially‐trained employer representatives. It is felt that such a shift would enable sufficient time to be spent on the thousands of needs assessments conducted every year under the auspices of this massive training initiative. The methodology suggested here would be applicable to any large‐scale provincial or state‐run industrial training programme.

The goal of this research is to demonstrate how web‐based applications improve the effectiveness of a very important human resource (HR) function. It proposes a framework of a web‐based training needs assessment system for HR professionals to effectively assess employee needs for competency‐based training.

A conceptual framework of a survey‐based training needs assessment using the Internet was developed. A use case detailing a walkthrough of a prototype system developed under this proposed framework was created to illustrate how this system works. A two‐phased operation test of the prototype system was then conducted to assess how well human resource (HR) managers would accept and adopt this technology to develop organizational competencies. The first phase involved demonstrating the use case to a group of experienced HR managers and polling their opinion toward the system. The second phase involved one‐on‐one interviews with three select HR managers who were asked to experience the prototype system hands‐on.

HR managers from both phases of validation demonstrated positive acceptance of both the needs assessment model and the process improvement generated from the web‐based prototype system.

The qualitative validation test was conducted to a small sample of Taiwan's HR managers. Caution is advised when generalizing the positive results to other regions or countries with more advanced IT applications in HR practices.

This study contributes to the HR practice in several ways. First, it qualitatively confirms that HR professionals accept a competence‐based approach to build company's training curriculum. Second, it observes a lack of effective tools to help HR professionals in the task of training needs assessment. Third, it shows that HR professionals do recognize the power of web technology in helping them become more efficient.

Formal competency‐based training programs are rarely implemented in the real world because the process required is both tedious and time‐consuming. This paper adopts Internet technologies in a conceptual model for effective competency‐based training needs assessment, and presents an efficient web‐based tool to assist HR professionals in the needed analysis.