The Changing World of the Trainer

The ‘Changing World of the Trainer’ considers how the human resource development professional should undertake his or her role in today’s organization. It offers a new framework which reflects the business reality of the modern world. This practical work proceeds through a series of tools, checklists, questionnaires and instruments and presents an extensive series of illustrative case studies, drawn from organizations throughout the world.

The book argues that the problems that trainers face are fundamentally the same. Their objective is to put a process in place to ensure that employees are able to acquire the knowledge and skill required by the organization. The acquisition of individual and collective knowledge and skills is not the primary purpose of the organization – skills are a means to the end of profitability and service delivery. Hence training is a derived or secondary activity. In the world economy a global model of human resource development is emerging. In one form or another, organizations are seeking to develop what are known as high performance working practices. What the customer requires drives business processes: staff must be recruited, retained and motivated. Effective learning, training and development is now essential.

This does not mean the end of the traditional off-the-job training course. There are many occasions, and these are illustrated within the book, when a training course delivered by a subject-matter expert is an effective way of promoting the organization’s objectives through individual learning. However, it is increasingly evident that the range of interventions undertaken by the trainer extends far beyond the design and delivery of the training course. There has been a huge increase in coaching and in ways of promoting group learning. Action learning is undergoing a resurgence. Generally there has been a growth of non-directive forms of intervention; a shift in emphasis from instruction to the facilitation of the learning process. Many practitioners are proceeding effectively to redefine their roles in a variety of different ways. However, it is now time to offer a formal expression of the new training and learning role.

Martyn Sloman is highly respected intermationally within the field of learning and development, with experience as a practitioner in the public, private and voluntary sectors.