Improving Workplace Expertise to Meet Increasing Customer Requirements: The Impact of Training

This article focuses upon the training of engineers at a factory producing integrated circuits. Inadequate use of statistical process techniques by the engineers meant that the production process was not being optimised in the context of increasing customer requirements. A training needs analysis was undertaken and a training programme was developed, implemented and evaluated. The results of this programme are presented and conclusions drawn

Working and Learning with Electronic Performance Support Systems: An Effectiveness Study

In this study the effectiveness of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) is reported. Some of the expected advantages of EPSS, such as an increase in productivity and improved learning are evaluated with insurance agents using laptop computers. Theoretical statements, research design and hypotheses are presented. The conclusion is that EPSS was cheaper than classroom training and had some benefits for learners, but did not produce the expected benefit of an increase in productivity

The future of HRD

What organizational, technological and training developments will become crucial in the coming years, and what consequences will they have for human resource development? These questions have led to a study carried out by the faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. The ultimate aim of the study was to create an inventory of trends and developments which professionals deem to be influential with regard to the future HRD field. One direct catalyst for the study was the report of a similar study in the United States, involving HRD executives, carried out by the American Society for Training & Development. Following a brief explanation of the research plan and methods, this article describes the findings of the Dutch study an compares these with the results of the American research. It concludes with comments regarding the implications of the information obtained through this investigation

Performance improvement: Impact of training in statistical process analysis for engineers at an IC-factory

Reports on the production of integrated circuits ‐ a cyclical process consisting of a large number of operations, the results of which are measured, where possible ‐ in a large, Dutch IC factory. The measurements are analysed by the process and equipment engineers using DATA, a statistical analysis system. This process analysis is intended for the analysis of process problems and for monitoring and optimizing the production process. The automation section, which is responsible for DATA, had stated that DATA was not being used optimally and that too few of the engineers were using it. The management had the impression that DATA should be more intensively used in order to meet the ever‐increasing requirements which the clients put on process control. Seeks to determine the causes of the problem, how the problem could be classified, and whether there was a need for training. On the basis of needs analysis, concludes that the situation involved a performance problem for which a solution had to be found. The needs analysis has also led to a clear description of the need for training among the target group. Reports that, subsequently, on the basis of these results a training programme was developed and implemented. Concludes with an evaluation of the impact of this training programme on the use of the DATA system

Changing performance requirements: consequences for new training schemes

Discusses the concept of “integrating management” with respect to the development of a new approach to training in the Dutch Department of Public Works; tertiary technical education is no longer enough as training for managers facing interdisciplinary problems, as the Department changes from a functional to a product organization. Describes the present and future altered organizational structures. Describes how job and training profiles were developed from the literature, analysis of data about the target population and their training needs, collected by interview and questionnaire, and a crucial two‐day workshop to test the validity of the results and to draw up the profiles

Key Qualifications in Work and Education

In today's rapidly changing world a constant renewal of knowledge and skills in every human endeavour can be observed. The characteristics of workers and the jobs that they perform have been attended by technological, social, and political change on a global scale. New forms of employment have made work more mobile to an extent never experienced before. An increasing proportion of workers no longer need come to their employer's job site in order to do their work. The instability of employment is creating a new breed of workers who know how to move efficiently from one job to another. As a consequence workers need flexible qualifications to perform jobs. Key qualifications are the answer! Key qualifications provide the key to rapid and effective acquisition of new knowledge and skills. First, qualifications enable workers to react effectively to, and exercise initiative in, changes to their work. Second, qualifications enable workers to shape their own career in a time of diminishing job security, nowadays frequently defined as 'employability'