Sadly the weekly journal Personnel Today rarely seems to produce any meaty articles on learning and development issues but I should mention a new report on page 2 of the above edition. At a recent ‘World of Learning’ conference in Birmingham a survey of learning professionals was revealed and it contained the – for many of us who have read recent articles – unsurprising conclusion that ‘lack of line management commitment and follow up exercises were the most commonly cited barriers to employees retaining information from courses’
The article then reports a row as to who is responsible for this failure. Bob Mosher of LearningGuide Solutions took the easy route that trainers often go for, blaming line management, whereas Ruth Spellman of the Chartered Management Institute blamed poorly structured training programmes. I have sympathy for both points of view and the answer is clearly that the failings are usually a combination of the two. Managers do often allow other priorities do get in the way of post course implementation but how many of us also design action planning sessions as an afterthought rather than within the mainstream design?
Ruth Spellman is clearly not a person who minces words; she said:
‘Perhaps learning professionals should spend less time talking and more time improving training schemes’
She also described a power struggle between line managers and training professionals over who controls workplace development. I hope that she is wrong and that others with a less confrontational approach realise that this is not an ‘either/or’ choice; the whole point is that there is a need for partnership to achieve the desired end – better retention and application.
Ms Spellman has probably achieved her objective – she has her picture and a headline. But she has also made a useful contribution to an ongoing debate.
