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This study aims to assess the training needs of fishermen in Oman using the concept mapping technique. This study was the part of a larger research project on the training needs assessment (TNA), where a mixed method approach was used to identify the training needs.

Perspective of 12 instructors on a focus question was taken during a brainstorming session at a Fishermen Training Institute in Oman. Using the concept mapping technique involving the multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis, the data recorded was analyzed to arrive at the need clusters, which were later rated and ranked to assign relative importance.

The identification led to a ten-clustered solution, covering a range of areas, requiring technical and behavioral skills. The top five training concerns were also identified using the participants’ ratings of the identified training-need clusters. Furthermore, the merit of concept mapping technique over purely quantitative assessments was also realized.

The study not only identified and evaluated the training needs but also observed the relevance of concept mapping technique. It was observed that the concept mapping technique struck a balance between the two extremes of subjectivity and objectivity while identifying the training needs. The application of concept mapping technique can help in covering the concerns of multiple stakeholders in TNA.

It identifies some key training areas for Fishermen Training Institutions and government bodies in Oman. The research also supports the extension of the application of concept mapping technique to decision-making situations in other areas.

Training interventions based on the needs assessment will help fishermen from the Oman’s Batinah coast in gaining additional skills, expertise and income.

This study applies the concept mapping technique in assessing the training needs of fishermen. The research also shares the outcomes of a pioneering attempt to identify fishermen’s training needs in Oman.

The topic discussed in this monograph is how to make training more effective by fitting it more closely into the organisational context. Models of training are examined to consider the difference between training an individual and changing the way in which the individual performs in the work context. In order to highlight the ways in which individual and organisational needs can be integrated, the identification of training needs is discussed. To emphasise the essentially cyclical nature of learning, the learning experience is broken down into a sequence of events. Most of these attempts to define effective training imply that it is often an attempt to change the way the organisation functions. In the final section therefore, the problems of using the training department as an agent for change are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and provide empirical evidence for the combined effects of individual characteristics, training design factors as well as environmental factors (as pre-training factors) on training transfer.

Primary data were collected from 235 managerial-level full-time employees in two phases with a temporal gap of two months. Both procedural and statistical measures were used to minimize the common method variance problem. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to analyze the data.

The results of this study clearly point out that all four predictor variables (voluntary participation, prior training information, training needs identification and training evaluation) positively and significantly influence training transfer.

The study contributes to the training transfer literature in three ways. One, the authors have shown the positive influence of pre-training factors (together as well as independently) on training transfer. The study is grounded in a strong theoretical framework, thus fulfilling the previous gap. This study brings more clarity to those variables (such as voluntary training) which are having contradicting views in the extant literature.

The study has significant findings for the organizations operating in the current business scenario in their endeavor to enhance learning transfer, which is very low and a major cause of concern for every organization. If management is aware of the success factors of training transfer, they can ensure a better training transfer.

The training transfer literature showcases two significant gaps; first of all, it lacks in using appropriate motivational theories, and second, there is variability in the results. This paper bridges both the gaps and attempts to advance our understanding of training transfer grounded in the theoretical framework by focusing on the role of individual, motivational and situational factors of training transfer to understand better which predictor variables can improve training transfer.

Presents a three‐level model to enable the design and conduct of an audit of training and development developed from the authors’ consultancy experience working with training and development managers and specialists from diverse medium and large organizations. Describes three levels ‐ event/programme, function and organization levels. Considerably extends the framework first described by one of the authors in an earlier article. This extended model permits the benchmarking of training and development against established best practice. Use of the model enables the identification of where an organization’s training and development can be considered successful and where challenges and opportunities for improvement exist.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the eThekwini Municipal Academy (EMA) conducts training needs assessments for vocational skills training for unemployed and disadvantaged youths, KwaZulu-Natal province. By examining the process of training needs assessment (TNA), the focus was on determining how it might influence the success in employment outcomes of the graduates.

The researcher used mixed research methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative research method was a survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire helped produce a detailed description of respondents' opinions and experiences. The qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews helped to present the data from the perspective of the training managers on the process of TNA and opportunities in accessing employment for the graduates. Purposive sampling was used to select 24 training centre managers and 512 trainees. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS software, and data from interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

The findings revealed that the most important aspect of the TNA process was that the EMA managers selected and design a training course after consulting and engaging the stakeholders who were also prospective employers to identify needs and job availability within the companies or government departments. The author concludes that the process of TNA involving all stakeholders helped to provide vocational training programmes, which were demand-driven. The process also might promote the best and most promising practices enhancing the transition from skills acquisition to skills utilisation in the labour market.

The results of the study have shown the three main factors that affect the TNA process, which are an individual or person analysis, consulting key stakeholders and labour market assessment. It is hoped that the results of the study can be used by training practitioners for better understanding of factors that can contribute to the effectiveness of vocational skills training for unemployed youth.

The paper is unique because it contributes to the knowledge by explaining the link between the effectiveness of vocational skills training and a proper TNA for unemployed youth. It also provides knowledge on key factors in conducting the TNA process by involving all stakeholders. Existing TNA research focuses on competency-based need analysis for employees of companies, organisations and institutions. Therefore, this paper is significant because it helps to understand the role of TNA in enhancing the effectiveness of vocational skills training for unemployed and disadvantaged youths.

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.

This monograph seeks to supply a contribution to the debate on the major formative factors which have led to current perceptions of the roles which either should be, or are, undertaken by industrial training officers. Any attempt to ascertain these developmental paths must be limited by the relative importance which the interpreter gives to writings and events. To this extent it must be a subjective and selective viewpoint. Whatever our perspective, there is one undoubted fact: there has been a considerable increase in the number of industrial training officers over the last 20 years — and a corresponding increase in training activities. This increase has been more than matched with an outpouring of literature on training and, to a much lesser extent, research into training themes.

The most common approach to the identification of training needs and the preparation of training programmes and material is through a process of individual job analysis. Individual job analysis has been used successfully for a wide range of occupations including managers, supervisors and shop floor employees, and whilst it has also been used for clerical occupations, it has in practice, presented difficulties. These difficulties arise because clerical jobs, whilst being numerous, are less homogeneous than those of production workers. There is also normally a greater degree of job flexibility. To overcome these difficulties two broad approaches have been used: • identification of common basic skills • analysis of systems. It is with the developments which have flowed from the analysis of systems that this article is concerned. These developments have led us to three broad conclusions: • the need for systems training extends beyond what are normally regarded as administrative and clerical jobs • the training needs identified as a result of analysing systems differ from those identified when the approach is through individual job analysis • using the systems approach training material is quicker to produce, more flexible and probably reduces training times.

I begin by examining some ways in which organisations have attempted to improve their recruitment and selection procedures to minimise bias and unfair discrimination, and focus on the assessment centre as a potentially useful technique in this respect, especially for managerial selection. I go on to examine the assessment centre in more detail, including its origins, construction and uses, before discussing the strong evidence for its validity as a selection and assessment procedure. I then describe some recent British innovations in assessment centre design and practice, especially in its use for management and organisation development purposes, before discussing some of my own recent research, in collaboration with Ivan Robertson and Usha Rout, on participants' attitudes towards the use of assessment centres for selection and development purposes, including gender differences in attitudes.