Unit 23 Human Resource Training and Development Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 23 Human Resource Training and Development
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

Human resource department is responsible for the success of the organization by providing training and development opportunities to improve to skills of an individual or a team. Training and development plays a vital role in an organization for every level of employees including junior staffs and senior executives. Learners need to understand the importance of training and development practices done by the staff for developing their skills and knowledge. Training creates costs for the organization and managers need to conduct training and development programs within the budgets. Training helps an individual to convert the theoretical knowledge into practical aspect that can be applied at workplace.

The result of trainings needs to be evaluated. Managers have adopted some suitable ways for measuring the impact of  training and development  programmes. It is important to manage the training cycle in the organization so as to provide correct up- to- date skills and knowledge to the employees that helps them in doing their job in an effective way.

Task 1

1.1 Compare different learning styles.

Every person has its own learning style. It is not necessary for everyone to have same learning style. It differs from each other. People are classified according to their learning style. A single person can have more than one learning style. They use different learning style according to different situation.  Some of them are used for a specific circumstance, so it becomes difficult to use another learning style at that situation. Learning styles are influences by the behavior that separates two individuals from each other.(Mankin, 2009)

There are different learning styles-

• Fleming’s VAK model- Here, VAK refers to visual- auditory- kinesthetic model. This method is very common and belongs to a widely used category of learning styles. It gives a very easy way to understand and describe various learning styles.

1. Visual- Visual learners are the ones who can easily learn by pictures, visual displays, diagrams etc.(Bhattacharyya, 2009)
2. Auditory- They can learn through audio sources i.e. by listening to lectures audio recordings etc.
3. Kinesthetic- These learners can learn through experiences i.e. by doing, feeling and experimenting.

• Kolb learning style- Kolb’s learning style focuses on the perception and processing. According to it, learners understand and process the information from experiences, observations, concepts and experimentation. It is based on a learning style which has four learning stage.

1.  Concrete experience- It consists of a situation which creates a base for new learning.
2. Reflective observation- It includes to think about the dimensions of concrete experience.
3. Abstract conceptualization- Understanding the basic concept related to concrete experiences.(Clark, 2010)
4. Active experimentation- It means to use a theory so that it can make predictions and check their assumptions.(Reid, 2005)

  It has four learning styles-

• Converger- It includes the concepts and experiments.
• Diverger- It includes real experiences.
•  Assimilator- It includes reasoning that is based on theoretical aspects.
•  Accommodator- It involves experience
• Honey and Mumford- This style is developed by creating certain variations in Kolb’s approach. It is the combination of learning cycle stages.

1. Stage 1- It is all about experiencing something.
2. Stage 2- It is related to review of experience.
3. Stage 3- It means to get conclusion out of experience.
4. Stage 4- It includes planning the next actions or steps.

• 4MAT System- It is introduced by Bernice McCarthy. It is based upon Brain Dominance theory. It has four styles-

1. Innovative Learners- This type of learners are very much creative and like to apply innovative practices and approaches for learning.
2. Analytic Learner- These are the logical abstract thinkers who learns in an organized and conceptual way.
3. Common Sense Learner- They have a problem solving approach by discovering new things. They acquire information and then process it in an active way.
4. Dynamic Learner- They prefer to learn according to own way by working in an independent manner. They prefer risk taking for learning.(Salas and Bowers, 2003)

Explain the role of the learning curve and the importance of transferring learning to the workplace.

Learning curve refers to a graphical representation that reflects the pace of improvement of an individual in reference to the performance of a task.(Nathan, 2006) It also shows the time involved in learning process. It is used to measure the capacity of an employee to complete a specific task successfully within the given time period. An organization can plan effective training and development programs to understand the several learning styles of the employees. It shows an ascending or descending order on the basis of worker’s performance in relation to acquiring skills.(Glautier, 2013)

Learning transfer- Learning transfer refers to transfer the learning from a learning setting so that it can be used in a particular activity. Administration of these techniques has been done at the time of training. For using a technique in an effective way, it is necessary to transfer learning work according to an individual’s ability. Learning transfer is to apply the school knowledge in office work to gain appreciation from the superiors. A learner should focus on it as the program is conducted for promoting learning process.(Kim, 2014)

1.3 Assess the contribution of learning styles and theories when planning and designing a learning event.

The main objective behind training is to make workers work in a more effective way. Induction programs are not considered that important until and unless they facilitate learning’s. These situations include feedbacks given to the workers that help them in successful accomplishment of activities. It also focuses on the needs of the workers and gives them a chance to experience new things to facilitate the learning practices. The training instructor note downs the tasks to be learnt by the training programs and results of the same to ensure that it must be relevant according to the job. Learning outcomes-(Bhattacharyya, 2009)

Type	Capability description	Example
Motor skills	It means to execute a physical task with timing.	Hitting a moving object continuously with a crossbow.
Verbal communication	It defines the existing stored information. (Reid, 2005)	Define reasons in order to follow measures in an organization.
Attitudes	It refers to a personal act.	Response to a mail within the given time.
Intellectual skills	It refers to the application of general rules and regulation to solve problems.(McConnell, 2003)	To set applications in computer to meet demands of customers.
Cognitive strategies	It includes managing thinking and learning process.	Using different strategies for evaluation of malfunctions in engines.

There are different factors in context of different learning theories. Most of them are related to employee’s motivation. Theory of reinforcement describes the effect of individual’s behavior that has been experienced in past. Negative behavior results in an undesired outcome whereas positive behavior results in desired outcome. (Salas and Bowers, 2003)

Task 2

2.1 Compare the training needs for staff at different levels in an organisation of your choice.

Every organization has different training needs. It is important to provide training to the staff of every level in accordance with their needs and requirements as it help them in enhancing their skills to do the job in a better way. There are different roles and responsibilities of different staff members, so their training requirements are also different.For determining the training requirement, it is important to conduct training evaluation so that an organization can judge the skills and knowledge of the employees. It defines the desired output, desired  information knowledge  and desired skills of the employees that Green and company wants its employees to acquire.(Paige, 2008)

Green and company use this technique to evaluate the training that is given to the employees. It classifies the needs of staff into a criterion-

Analyse training needs	Creating specification of training	Knowing l styles of learning	Evaluation and training	Methods, design and training
There should be a proper assessment of training needs.           This can be done in process that is known as appraisal.             People should participate in the suitable training activities.	Break down of training requirements into different factors.(McLaughlin, 2006)     There should be an attachment with every factor related to the standards.         It is important to identify right tool to be used for training.	Training procedure has been influenced by different learning style of individuals.       It refers to finding out a relevant method of understanding.           While carrying out this process, it is important to consider the group.	It includes calculation of training effectiveness after the completion of training procedures.   It refers to identification of a theory that helps in understanding techniques.         Internet should be used in order to gain more knowledge.	Presentation plays a vital role in delivery. (Reid, 2005)           Communication should be meaningful. (Mankin, 2009)             Use of templates is beneficial for training.

Green and Company knows about the limitations comes in creating confidence, resourcefulness in staff and conflict resolution. Due to this, the staffs of Green and company focus on increasing competition and efficiency of the organization.

2.2 Assess the advantages and disadvantages of training methods used in your chosen organisation.

Various strategies are used by Green and company for the training of the employees. Counselling has been conducted so as to create a successful career path for the employees. It also uses performance appraisal for improving the performance of the employees. Management has provided the best training tools so it can enhance the skills of the employees for achieving the objectives of the organisation. But sometimes it results in some disadvantages when it results in negative outcomes. The advantages and disadvantages of training methods used in Green and company are as follows: Training Methods	Advantage	Disadvantage
Playing a role	Proper assistance is provided to employees so that they can realize the secrets for being successful.	It can result in nervousness depends upon the role which leads to decrease in performance level.(Werner, 2014)
Performance appraisal	Helps an employee to assess performance level and the required competencies to achieve the desired level of performance.	It may lead to demoralization for the employees who don’t perform well.
Discussion	Discussion increases skills of the employees.	Sometimes the supportive role plays a crucial part.
Workshops	It plays a relevant role in providing practice to the workers that can improve their performance.	It is an expensive process and its benefits only depend on how employees perceive it.(Myftiu, 2015)
Coaching for performance	It includes assessment of employee’s performance to know about the required improvements.	Sometimes this assessment gives negative results.

2.3 Use a systematic approach to plan training and development for a training event.

A training event must consist of all the elements necessary to provide training and development. I will accept a problem solving approach for providing training to workers and execute a decision making process. In this process employees are given different realistic situations and asked to provide solutions to it. (Nathan, 2006)Because of this, problem solving skills can be developed within the employees in reference to employee relation, customer service, proper management etc. If employees are considered in decision making process, then it leads to increase in motivation.(Bhattacharyya, 2009)

The event training process- There will be an introduction between the team and the managers in training event and afterwards the real challenge has been solved. Q&A activities are carried out among the employees to ensure that the workers are oriented in a proper way. On the following day, set of instructions are provided to the employee to whom the task was allotted to find out the results. (Reid, 2005)

 Afterwards, the staff will be divided into three groups where they will calculate and evaluate solutions in a specific time period. Then, the results have been studied by the managers so that they can give suggestions for  improvements. Q&A activities help the groups to provide a suitable solution to deal with different problems.(Clark, 2010)

Task 3

3.1 Prepare an evaluation using suitable techniques.

There are different methods that are used by managers to analyse the results of the trainings. These methods examine the efficiency and effectiveness of a task. It is the responsibility of top level management to conduct investigation about various activities by analysing different elements, costs and benefit decisions related to the activity. I prefer Five Tiered Approach for this. There are five steps in this approach that determines difference between expected results and actual results. The main objective behind this is to ensure that the activity fulfils the need of the organization or not.(McConnell, 2003)

• Program clarification- It refers to the assessment that depends upon several need stages that can determine the potential of an activity.
• Assessment of needs- It means answering the questions.
• Accountability and monitor- It refers to the indication of partaker with the services.(Glautier, 2013)
• Progress- It refers to identification related advancements.
• Program impact- It refers to the effects of experimental criteria.

3.2 Carry out an evaluation of a training event.

Evaluation refers to evaluate or to measure the effects of training and learning on the performance of an individual and his contribution towards organizational goals. Training evaluations helps an organisation to ensure that the training provided is beneficial to the organization or not. It evaluates the return on investment, level of competence and social/economic benefits of an organization. Kirkpatrick has defined four levels of evaluation techniques-

1. Reaction level- It is related to the reaction of the participants on the completion of training. It shows their satisfaction level, learning’s and effectiveness of the program.(Salas and Bowers, 2003)
2. Learning level- It defines the learning outcomes of training programme. In includes case studies and play roles rather than normal questions. Instructor is responsible to provide feedback at the time of learning activities.  Firstly he monitors everything and then provides feedback.(McLaughlin, 2006)
3. Behaviour level- It defines the change in behaviour and performance of the employees in reference to trainings. It includes observations, survey or comparisons to know the change in behaviour.(Paige, 2008)
4. Result level- It defines the positive or negative impact of the training on the organization. It also calculates the return on investments for training.

The success due to training is identifiable because it creates a motivation among employees. First activity consists of formulation of a problem that is related to customer service. Proper solutions are proposed by the team of staff. Discussions have been done to find out relevant conclusion. The benefits of this activity are related to enhancement of customer service that is discovered by the employees.(Nathan, 2006)

3.3 Review the success of the evaluation methods used.

It is very important to review the success of the evaluation methods used so that an organization can ensure a positive return on investment. Margaret Anne Reid et al define some questions that need to be asked to review the success of evaluation methods.

These questions are-

• Define the need of evaluation?
• Who should do it?
• What things should be evaluated and when it should be done?
• Describe the type of evaluation that can be used?

The framework of five tiered appraisal is helpfulto judge real life situations in a planned activity. All the issues are resolved by comparing the standard and actual benefits of training activity. During the worker’s evaluation process, important activities were provided so that can create an impact on development process. For achieving better results and outputs, an improvement in logical factors is also carried out.

Task 4

4.1 Explain the role of government in training, development and lifelong learning.

• Training – It is designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees by providing them guidance, lectures, tests, coaching’s etc. These skills and knowledge helps them to do their job in a more effective way.
• Development- It includes the learning process that exists beyond the present job. It includes development by daily learning’s from different day to day tasks.(Mankin, 2009)

An organization should understand the importance of training and development and take an appropriate action according to that. Government of UK plays a vital role in training and development. It has taken an initiative to fulfil the objective of removing barriers of unemployment of society. Government used the initiative in order to create opportunities to broad communities or backgrounds. According to them, lifelong learning provides helps in removing social exclusions.(Paige, 2008) The objective behind lifelong learning is to provide opportunities to people so that they can re develop their skills and add on updated knowledge without pursue continuous long courses. It focuses on creating a demand for learning by providing vocational learning that consists of fun element as well as learning. It aims on creating a world class training that can meet the skills set of European and UK market.

It is the responsibility of minister to provide further education,  employability skills  and lifelong learning and this role has been shared between four departments i.e. the department of business, innovation, skills and local education. There is an improvement in National curriculum tests that has become one of the most important campaigns in all levels. More than 800 colleges have been shut down to improve immigration and standards. (Reid, 2005)

Government responsibilities are-

• Provide further education
• Training at workplace
• Lifelong learning
• Reform programme as per qualification
• Apprenticeship
• Funding agencies(Kim, 2014)

There are some special training areas that play an important role-

• Ethics- It focuses on moral behaviour those results in the development of corporate culture.
• Teamwork- It refers to work in a team.(Bhattacharyya, 2009)
• Empowerment- It emphasize on decision making process and delegation of responsibilities.
• English- It helps employees to optimise personal relationships.

4.2 Explain how the development of the competency movement has impacted on the public and private sectors.

Competency movements results in making firms concern about the performance gap related to firms. It has been notices that private sectors firms are performing in the best way by giving high quality products and services. Learning is a process that can never end and it is important to learn new things to gain more confidence. The growth in the private sectors affects the economy so public sector firms are also need to increase their level of performance. There are some public companies in UK that are putting their 100% effort in improving the performance and standard. One of them is ‘East coast trains’.(Nathan, 2006)Competency movements results in an effective and improved performance. It influences productivity of the firms. Employees receive best motivational assets and rewards in reference to evaluation and change of their fields. Institutions are facing some issues like low productivity, bad service quality and less initiatives. Different learning patterns have been introduced so that productivity can be increased and it contributes in development.

4.3 Assess how contemporary training initiatives introduced by the UK government contribute to human resources development for an organisation.

There are different initiatives taken by UK government for skills, training and development. One of them is Government labour market policies. They act as both active as well as passive policies.

• Passive policies- It includes the policies that help in providing replacement income at the time of unemployment, job search and trainings. It consists of voluntary retirement services, unemployment insurance services etc.With the help of these services, employees can survive easily without doing any job. (McLaughlin, 2006)
• Active policies- It focuses on re-integration of labour market. Active policies includes measures for creating job, trainings related to labour market, entrepreneurship, help in job search etc. It is responsible for the supply side policies. Job information and job booking policies are also included in this. It helps in matching supply of job with its demand. It has introduced some training like VET in that basic skills are used to increase employability and chances to find out a job for the unemployed. It can be done by participation in the programme. As per active policies, there should not be any compulsion for participation in training program. Instead of this, an incentive should be given to the unemployed, if they accept the job offer letter. That can easily attract an individual towards training programmes. Proper guidance, advice and information should be provided to job seekers that can assist them in find out a new job opportunity like presentation techniques, CV preparation, how to face interviews, application forms etc.(Paige, 2008)

Conclusion-

Training, development and learning are the essential requirements for the growth of an organization. Green and company provides training and development to its employees in an effective manner. Different training programs have been conducted for different staff levels because of different roles and responsibilities delegated to them. There are many advantages as well as some disadvantages of trainings. It is important to plan a suitable training program for the welfare of the employees. Green and company have created an impact on the economy in UK. The  business management  of the organization has introduced some effective resources that possess the capability to enhance employee’s performance. Because of this, the company has attained a leading position in the market. There are many challenges faced by company only for understanding the different learning requirements. Green and company provide support to its workers to get their best results.

References-

Books-
Bhattacharyya, D. (2009). Human resource development. Mumbai: Himalaya Pub. House.
Clark, R. (2010). Evidence-based training methods. Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press.
Mankin, D. (2009). Human resource development. New York: Oxford University Press.
McConnell, J. (2003). How to identify your organization's training needs. New York: AMACOM.
McLaughlin, T. (2006). Learning curve. Toronto: Harlequin.
Nathan, M. (2006). The learning curve. London: Arrow
Journals-
Glautier, S. (2013). Revisiting the learning curve (once again).Frontiers in Psychology, 4.
Kim, J. (2014). Residency training: training program renewal and evaluation of training. J Korean Med Assoc, 57(11), p.896.
Myftiu, J. (2015). Individual Differences Considering Students’ Learning Styles. MJSS
Werner, J. (2014). Human Resource Development ≠ Human Resource Management: So What Is It? Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), pp.127-139.
Images-
Malaher.org, 2016, pet peeve learning curve misuse, (online)
Available at: http://malaher.org/2007/03/pet-peeve-learning-curve-misuse/
Accessed on: 3^rd August, 2016