In keeping with this emerging emphasis on lifelong learning, the human resource development (HRD) manager in a contemporary organization must increasingly devote attention to something more than the amount an employee has learned in a training or education program. The old, deficit-based model no longer works. The deficit model suggests that the trainer or education with a full pitcher will pour her knowledge or skills into the empty mug of the trainee or student. We now know that the mug is never empty and the pitcher isn’t always full. Attention is now being given to the retention and transfer of learning. What’s in the mug six months later and how have the ingredients of the mug been used on the job? Which skills have the employee retained and actually used three or four months after the conclusion of a training program? How much knowledge has the employee retained six months following the education program and how is this knowledge being applied in solving problems, making plans, or arriving at informed decisions?
Given these shifting concerns regarding employee development, new HRD priorities are being set in selecting among four primary modes of employee training and education: (1) intensive/off-site programs, (2) intensive/on-site programs, 3) distributed/on-site programs and (4) just in time programs. I will briefly describe each of these four modes and suggest their most appropriate use in a developmental context that emphasizes retention and transfer of learning.
Chart One: Four Modes of Training and Education
