Cognitive apprenticeship is a teaching approach proponed by social constructivist educators that scaffolds upon students' "zones of proximal development" in authentic situations. It is an effective approach used by teachers of instructional technology when teaching student practitioners. Nevertheless, implementation of instructional design…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the need for, and development of, further education and practical training for recruits into industry. Design/methodology/approach: The paper discusses how, at the time of writing, many firms were developing and operating training schemes for industrial personnel. Firms benefit themselves from…

Purpose: To give an overview of prevalent views on and practices in management development in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: Employs a questionnaire, mainly Likert-scale, to interview human resource managers and line managers in 86 companies in New Zealand. The research model and instrumentation is based on existing research on…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify key factors influencing employee learning from the perspective of owners/managers. Design/methodology/research: Data were gathered from owners/managers in a total of 27 small manufacturing and services firms through interviews and analysed using content analytic procedures. Findings: The…

The concept of Educational Ambassadors is embedded within the so-called "Danish model" of industrial relations. The Danish industrial relations system is characterised by strong collective organisations with national coverage, which conclude the collective agreements for various industries or sectors and which are mostly grouped under…

Corporate universities have emerged as a mechanism for providing companies with a wide variety of training and development activities. They are a recent but under-researched phenomenon, and given their substantial budgets, it might be expected that they would wish to evaluate what they do. The authors explore the evaluation practices of six…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to open up discussion about the relationship between trade unions and workplace learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on an analysis of a series of case-studies of restructuring in the European steel industry, incorporating interviews, observation and documentary analysis. Findings: The…

This study examined use of a strategic planning process to reinvent a corporate training department. The naturalistic case describes how the corporate training function gained credibility and influence with senior management, developed alignment with organizational goals, and began transforming the function into a performance improvement…

Using the UK experience as a template, this paper explores the concept of competencies as a viable bridge to employer engagement. In this context, the definition of competency coalesces into three primary interpretations (input, output and "behaviour"), leading to three applications: work related skill sets, standards and…

This dissertation explores the private-public sector partnership between CVS/pharmacy and the federal/state workforce development system in Minnesota. The study describes how CVS creates partnerships with the federal/state system of one-stop career centers and other partners in the workforce development arena such as community or faith-based…

Learning in workplaces is always mediated through talk. It is tempting for management to seek to utilise everyday talk as part of learning and therefore enhance productivity. This paper examines the responses of workers to interventions that aim to formalise informal conversations at work as part of an explicit workplace learning strategy. It…

Lifelong learning and professional development have been the focus of government organisations after the 21st century was declared the "learning century", amidst the impact of globalisation and growth of knowledge-based economies. Although lifelong learning and professional development opportunities are available in most government…

Using a representative employer-employee level dataset, this paper answers four questions: (1) What characterises employer provided training in Norway? (2) What characterises firms that invest heavily in employer provided training? (3) Is it the same firms that invest in employer provided all the time? (4) Has the level of employer provided…

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of what e-Learning executives believe are the critical success factors for companies to successfully deliver training and education over the world-wide web. The study was a qualitative, multiple-case study design including in-depth, semi-structured interviews that incorporated verbal critical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of approaches to outsourcing HRD in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs semi-structured interviews and case studies. The research model was developed from a literature review. Findings: There are many problems associated with outsourcing any or all aspects of the HRD…