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The purpose of this paper is to look at the issues concerning barriers that managers face in relation to participation in training and transfer of training, which have become increasingly important to HRD scholars and practitioners. To date, these areas have largely been examined independently. This paper aims to argue that there is an increasing need to understand and explore these two areas in unison.

Although this paper is primarily conceptual in nature, in order to investigate a model derived from relevant literature, survey data from 137 Canadian employees, mostly from the broader public sector, was examined. These respondents completed a short transfer of training questionnaire three months after a one‐day managerial training programme. In this study, open‐ended questions investigating training barriers are analysed.

The exploratory examination of information from participants of a managerial training programme suggests that the model which links literature on participation in training and transfer of training warrants additional examination. Most significantly, there was substantial overlap between the participation and transfer barriers with the most common barriers being linked to “lack of time” and “unsupportive culture”.

The main limitation of this paper is the relatively small sample size with regard to data concerning barriers to transfer. However, the authors feel that a key implication is that a “bridge of understanding” is created concerning the numerous factors that impact participation in training, transfer of training and the relationships between them. Hence, HRD practitioners and scholars can now use this model to begin to understand how they might improve the overall quality of training programmes and to further explore the relationship between transfer and participation.

The conceptual model developed further integrates the respective literatures pertaining to management training participation and transfer of learning in the workplace. The proposed model shows how barriers to participation can become barriers to transfer and how barriers to transfer from one programme may become barriers to participation to subsequent learning activities.

Training activities organized by maker-spaces have become the most important channel through which makers acquire new external knowledge related to problem solving and thus contribute significantly to makers' innovation performance. Is it true that the more training activities in which makers participate, the better their innovation performance? Following the logic of process analyses, this paper empirically verifies the effects of the scope and frequency of makers' participation in training activities on their innovation performance.

Based on a survey of 134 makers in China, this paper employed the procedure recommended by Preacher and Hayes (2008) to empirically test the total effects, direct effects and indirect effects of the scope and frequency of participation in training activities on makers' innovation performance via their ability to exploit new knowledge.

The research findings show that the scope (frequency) of participation in training activities has a positive (negative) effect on makers' innovation performance via the mediating effect of the makers' ability to exploit new knowledge. Time pressure acts as a negative moderator.

This paper sheds light on a considerably overlooked research area by investigating the effects of the scope and frequency of makers' participation in training activities on their innovation performance. The authors further identify and empirically test the theoretical mechanism by considering the mediating effect of makers' ability to exploit new knowledge. The research findings also provide a managerial training activity arrangement strategy for makerspaces and government.

This study was designed to provide insights into how barriers to small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) participation can be addressed by training providers by examining evidence from a training programme offered over a period of 21 months. Previous research findings identifying influences on SME participation in training have been used as an analytical framework to examine an experience of training design and delivery in practice. Discussion and analysis of project data within the framework above identifies support for some of the relationships between SME participation and these influences. SMEs have taken up the training, participation grew over time, and positive feedback was received. More respondents reported an intention to participate in future training than had taken part in prior training. It therefore seems that the approach taken has been successful in overcoming barriers to SME participation. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for learning approaches that promote SME take up.

We apply a recently suggested econometric approach to measure the effects of active labor market programs on employment, unemployment, and wage histories among participants. We find that participation in most of these training programs produces an initial locking-in effect and for some even a lower transition rate from unemployment to employment upon completion. Most programs, therefore, increase the expected duration of unemployment spells. However, we find that the training undertaken while unemployed successfully increases the expected duration of subsequent spells of employment for many subpopulations. These longer spells of employment come at a cost of lower accepted hourly wage rates.

Utilizing the 1995 Adult Education Interview compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, this study examined the determinants of training participation among adult female employees. Drawing on Sterns’s (1986) model of individual decision-making about training, we hypothesized that baby boomer cohorts of women would have higher rates of training participation than younger and older cohorts of women. This hypothesis was confirmed by results on age group variables. We also confirmed that both mandatory continuing education requirements and technological innovation in clerical occupations increased the likelihood of overall training participation among baby boomers, while only mandatory continuing education requirements significantly affected the overall training likelihoods of older and younger cohorts. Findings for disaggregated categories of training suggest that employer-support may be critical to female training participation, especially in lower wage occupations.

This study examines the relationship between small-firm managers' propensity to participate in a growth-oriented training program and their subsequent program outcome in terms of strategic reorientation. From a policy perspective, this relates to the important question of what benefit would come from recruiting managers who are normally not easily recruitable for training programs.

A control group design including pre- and post-training surveys is used to assess the effects of a large-scale management training program. Accounting for selection bias, the difference-in-difference method, together with propensity score matching, was applied to assess average program effects. The matching-smoothing method was used to assess heterogeneity in program effects associated with participation propensity.

Overall, program participation associated positively with change in strategic orientations. This effect was especially pronounced for managers with either low or medium to high inclinations for program enrollment, while diminishing in the modest to medium range.

The findings have important practical implications for selection of target groups and recruitment strategies in relation to small-firm management training programs. From the results, recruitment strategies may effectively include managers with either high or low participation propensities, rather than aiming to “fill up” with managers with moderately low participation propensity.

Several extant studies have examined average treatment effects from small-firm training programs. Yet there has been a lack of examination of the extent to which participation propensity modifies the effect of training on outcomes. This study brings new knowledge of the direction and magnitude of such heterogeneous training effects.

Based on the theory of planned behaviour and social learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of training participation and learning experience on the beliefs of low-educated employees about their self-efficacy for learning.

Low-educated workers of three different organizations (n=359) filled out a questionnaire at three different points in time, with a half-yearly interval. Regression analyses were used to establish the effects of training participation and learning experience on learning self-efficacy.

Training participation alone did not affect low-educated workers’ learning self-efficacy, but a positive learning experience did contribute to workers’ post-training learning self-efficacy. These results support the relevance of positive learning experiences.

Follow-up studies could focus on the effects of learning self-efficacy for subsequent learning activities, establish which aspects of training contribute to a positive learning experience, and include contextual characteristics that may predict learning self-efficacy.

To stimulate learning among lower educated workers, it is necessary that they have confidence in their ability to successfully complete their training. Trainers and training developers working for this specific target group of lower educated workers should aim to provide training that is a positive experience, besides being a learning exercise.

The study is the first to analyse the longitudinal effects of training participation and learning experience on post-training learning self-efficacy among low-educated workers.

Within the context of policies on developing the workforce of the government health sector in England, this paper aims to investigate participation in work‐related continuing education and training (WRCET), its pedagogy and effectiveness. Individual and organizational characteristics associated with effective WRCET are examined.

The paper employs a cross‐sectional study, using data from annual large‐scale National Staff Surveys of 2006 and 2009. Based on detailed occupational groups, the authors classify respondents to high‐ and low‐skilled staff and develop four dependent variables that combine specific types of training with respondent assessments of the effectiveness of their training for their professional development. Probit regressions models are estimated for both groups of workers, controlling for individual and organizational characteristics.

Participation in WRCET increased between 2006 and 2009 for both groups with differential patterns of participation across four types of training. Applying an effectiveness criterion eliminates relative change in participation rates between the groups and results in only about a quarter of those who participated in WRCET rating it as effective. Appraisal and particularly membership of positively rated work teams are strongly associated with training being rated as effective.

This is the first use of this large‐scale data set to appraise health sector policies on WRCET. Distinguishing between participation alone and whether participation is perceived as effective has benefits in appraising training policies and identifies appraisal and membership of positively rated teams as factors associated with effective WRCET. Use of an effectiveness criterion shows very large differences between participation alone and participation in effective WRCET.

This paper aims to examine whether participation in training and development (T&D) events is associated with employees’ affective commitment and propensity to enact innovative behaviours in small professional services firms. The study also investigates associations between both attitudes towards T&D and policy and practice supportive of T&D and levels of participation in T&D events.

Data from 203 employees in small professional services firms employing 50 or fewer staff were analysed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro.

Only policy and practice supportive of T&D was associated with participation levels. Participation in T&D events was positively related to affective commitment. Furthermore, employees who participated in more T&D events were more likely to enact innovative behaviours, while affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between number of T&D events attended and innovative behaviours. Contrary to expectations, neither participation in just training nor participation in just development was associated with either attitudes or behaviours.

The findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees’ knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for innovative behaviours.

There is limited research on how T&D affects attitudes and behaviours in small firms. Large and small firms are fundamentally different, thus findings from studies in large firms may not extend to small firms.

Considering the fact that business management training has the potential to improve performance of micro and small enterprises, it is surprising why participation rates in most freely offered management training courses remain low. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that determine an invitee’s decision to participate in a capacity building management training for street food entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Using data from a baseline survey, the study invited 314 street food entrepreneurs, selected through a stratified random technique from a list of 516 eligible food entrepreneurs. Training participants were invited to the programme through official invitation letters which were hand-delivered. Data on reasons for non-participation were collected either through phone interviews or on-site visit when a vendor could not be reached on phone. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise characteristics of vendors and businesses as well as reasons for non-participation while probit model was used to estimate determinants of participation.

The study found that whereas vendors with higher formal education better appreciate the benefits of education and training, their counterparts with fewer years of schooling do not. The latter’s perceived knowledge deficiencies appear to explain the difference in participation rates. Also, total workforce does not necessarily increase the probability of participation, especially when there are no trusted workers in the business who will take over critical activities such as handling of finances in the absence of the owner. The study also found that distance between vending premises and training centres had significant negative effects on vendors’ participation in the training programme.

The external validity of the study findings and conclusions may not be limited to all informal sectors of the developing economies due to high degree of heterogeneity of the informal economy.

The study focusses on an informal sector in developing country dominated by women. The study focusses on understanding informal entrepreneurs’ response to formal training.