Purpose: This monograph reports on the strategic and operational roles of learning and development (L&D) professionals in Irish, UK European and US organisations including multinational corporations, small to medium enterprises, the public sector and not for profit organisations. This paper aims to investigate the contextual factors…

This evaluation report presents the findings from the project-level evaluation of the CareerTech Challenge, delivered between May 2020 and June 2021. The report examines how the design and delivery of evaluations were undertaken, the findings across process and outcome evaluations and key learning from capacity building support delivered by…

This article explores the efficacy and cost effectiveness of New Labour's skills-based policies to help low paid workers adjust to the pressures generated by globalisation, of which the leading example was Train to Gain (T2G). It also analyses the more general issue of how, why and under what circumstances education, training and skills can help…

The loss of jobs in the automotive manufacturing industry, together with a more general decline of the manufacturing industry in Australia, has implications for the types of skills needed in the labour market. Both of these scenarios affect particular groups of people, such as displaced car workers, but within that category other groups such as…

Purpose: Most past research on formal mentoring has investigated its antecedents, outcomes and benefits with little attention given to what goes on inside the dyadic relationship. The purpose of this paper is to explore the types of mentor and mentee behaviours that are perceived as critical factors contributing to either a positive or negative…

Companies received more than 5 billion British Pounds last year from the Exchequer in tax relief for work-related training. That is equivalent to the turnover of more than 250 further education colleges. And it vastly overshadows the 50 million British Pounds Growth and Innovation Fund set up to support employers' initiatives to improve skills and…

There is persistent evidence over several decades that the UK lags behind its international competitors in terms of the skills and qualifications of its workforce, with a detrimental impact on overall economic performance. The most recent attempt by the UK government to address this includes a new strategy aimed at increasing the degree of…

To date, much of the research on employee development activities and organizational performance has been conducted in private sector organizations, with the largely untested assumption that the same findings will apply to other sectors. This paper addresses the deficit by describing a study comparing differences in the use of employee learning…

Universities have much to contribute to the improvement of health delivery, research, and teaching/learning. In progressing health reform, the Government should be mindful of the need to: (1) strengthen high quality medical research; (2) promote translation of research to teaching, population health and health services; and (3) address Health…

The objective of this report is to improve Canadians' understanding of e-learning--particularly of the challenges, limitations and benefits--so that Canada may move forward in appropriate and relevant ways. Levels of adoption of e-learning have been significantly slower than predicted. This report also identifies areas related to e-learning where…

This paper draws on a telephone survey of 116 independent SMEs to explore the impact of a variety of training interventions on human resource (HR) practices and business performance in Great Britain. The paper investigates the extent to which targeting such interventions on the managers of SMEs affects the impact and the likelihood of changes in…

A research study examined what competence-based management training (CBMT) is, how organizations are using it and why, and what impact it has had. It drew on evidence from a survey and case studies conducted among large employers in Britain (United Kingdom). General findings from 377 respondents indicated that the use of competencies was…

This packet contains three papers from a symposium on feedback systems held at a conference on human resource development (HRD). The first paper, "The Role of Feedback in Management Development Training" (K. Peter Kuchinke), reports on a survey-based study that investigated the role of feedback in nine management development training…

These four papers are from a symposium on human resource development (HRD) in the United Kingdom. "HRD and Psychological Contracts: A Case Study of Lifelong Learning" (Graeme Martin, Judy Pate, Jim McGoldrick) explores the influence of a lifelong learning program on employee perceptions of their psychological contracts in a longitudinal…

This book discusses the evolution of workfare policies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Chapter 1 defines the term "workfare" and examines the concepts of transnationalizing workfare and workfarist labor regulation. Chapter 2 establishes workfare's theoretical context and explores the relationship between welfare…