Making Training Work, by Shirine Voller, Training Journal, July 2011

The author is Associate Director of Research at Ashridge and the article offers some sensible and practical guidance, though I would not expect there to be much that is new for the experienced L&D person. Nevertheless there are some good pointers for the less experienced and an excellent checklist to assess own performance in the area of learning transfer.

This topic is always likely to be of interest to L&D specialists, because of its link to evaluation of training effectiveness. It is also obviously true that, without learning transfer of some kind - short or long term - training investment is wasted. The article rightly points out that the responsibility has to be shared between four parties - learner, trainer, senior manager and L&D - yet often the accountability is vague. Too often the training provider or the L&D department feel rather exposed, because they are held accountable but are not in control at the point of transfer.

The article puts forward three factors as being critical to learning transfer:

• Learner Characteristics
• Training Design
• Work Environment

Under learning characteristics an interesting factor is the need for confidence among those that are learning, something that trainers can frequently overlook. When I looked at a new course in my days of delivery, I used to remind myself that, even if I was nervous, the course members were probably even more so; they were in a foreign environment, maybe worried about being found lacking, unsure about what was coming. And the required confidence will only come from being fully briefed beforehand about what to expect and how to make the best of the opportunity. This clearly links to the importance of pre-course communication by L & D and line manager.

There is also emphasis on the importance of training providers who are prepared to be flexible in course design and who will build in opportunities for the process of learning transfer to begin. But, as you might expect from someone writing from the supplier perspective, the acid test is still whether there is a supportive environment back at the workplace, with opportunities for feedback and discussion of application opportunities.

The checklist offers a number of practical tips, the best of which were:

• Participants to ensure a light schedule on return from the course (often one hears quite the opposite)
• Teach someone else something you learned (MTP also offers this advice)
• Managers to familiarise themselves with course content
• L&D to prompt formal review sessions with participants and managers

Cynics might see this article as a way of saying that Ashridge and other suppliers cannot be fully accountable for learning transfer; they can only recommend and do everything to set things up. From an MTP perspective, we have much sympathy for this view and we share the author’s desire to put over the message about shared accountability.

But we should always be looking for better ways of achieving the transfer by imaginative course designs and continued assertiveness about the responsibility of others to deliver their part of the bargain.

Click here to read the article in full:

http://www.trainingjournal.com/search/?pageName=tj-free-trial&formName=fSearch&query=Making+Training+work%2C+shirine+Voller