Skills and Technical Training

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Skills and Technical Training

• Chapter 9

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Learning objectives

• Identify and describe basic workplace
  competencies.
• Explain the need for remedial basic skills
  training programs.
• Explain the role of apprenticeship programs in
  todays work environment.
• Describe a typical technical skills training
  program.
• Describe a typical interpersonal skills training
  program.

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Emerging Needs in the Workplace

• Skilled workers
• Professional employees
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Team members
• Interpersonal skills

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Three Categories of Skills Training

• Basic skills/literacy education
• Upgrading reading, writing, and arithmetic
• Technical training
• Upgrading a wide range of skills
• Interpersonal skills training
• Communication and teamwork

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Categories of Skills and Technical Training
Quality training
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The Skills Gap

• The difference between the skill requirements of
  available jobs and the skills possessed by job
  applicants
• Some people think that the skills gap is
  perpetuated by four-year, liberal arts education

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Factors Affecting Skills Gap

• Declining skill levels of many high school and
  college graduates
• Growing number of minority and non-English
  speaking immigrant workers
• Increased sophistication of jobs

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Basic Skills/Literacy Programs

• Prose literacy
• Ability to understand and use information from
  texts
• Document literacy
• Ability to locate and use information contained
  in non-textual materials
• Qualitative literacy
• Ability to apply arithmetic operations

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In-House Literacy Programs

• If schools dont do it, companies must.
• Two characteristics are common
• Aptitude tests
• Small-group or one-on-one tutoring

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Problems with Basic Skills Training Programs

• HRD professionals think the lack of literacy is a
  problem that affects many people.
• Management tends to think that lack of literacy
  is a problem, but affects only a few people.

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Federal Support for Basic Skills Training

• 19832000 Job Training and Partnership Act
  (JTPA)
• Provided funding to private training institutes
  and industry
• Problems included fraud and too focused on a
  narrow population
• One of 150 federal programs that cost a lot of
  money and produced little

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Federal Support for Basic Skills Training 2

• 2000present Workforce Investment Act
• Consolidated more than 70 existing programs
• Gave greater control at the local level
• Gave greater accountability to training providers

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Federal Support for Basic Skills Training
(Malaysia)

• Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Act (2001)
• The purpose is to ensure employers to conduct
  training for their work to upgrade their skills
  and abilities
• Employer are required to pay a monthly levy into
  HRDF
• They can apply reimbursement send /organizing
  the approval training.

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Federal Support for Basic Skills Training
(Malaysia)/2

• The Skills Development Act 2004/The National
  Skills Development Act 2006
• The purpose is to establish a fund for the
  purpose of granting loans to trainee who attend
  approves programmes to develop and upgrade their
  skills
• National Occupational Skills Standards (NOSS)
  develop the curriculum
• Trainees who achieve the required competencies
  will be awarded a certificate.

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Technical Training Programs

• Apprenticeship training
• Computer training
• Skills/knowledge training
• Safety training
• Quality training

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Apprenticeship Training

• Provide skills to meet continually changing job
  requirements
• Regulated by the Office of Apprenticeship
  Training, Employer and Labor Services (OATELS),
  formerly called the Bureau of Apprenticeship
  Training (BAT)
• Most require
• 2000 hours of OJT
• 144 hours of classroom training
• Though there may be a lot more hours

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Major Concerns

• Learning based on time requirements rather than
  competency
• Programs isolated from other programs
• Concentrated in blue-collar occupations
• Little concern for post-apprenticeship period

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Computer Training

• Introductory
• Focuses on basic tasks
• Overcomes fear of computers
• Applications
• Specific software used by company
• Provided as needed for position

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Computer Training Issues

• Self-Efficacy
• Individuals belief that he/she can successfully
  perform the task
• Cognitive Playfulness
• Spontaneity, imagination, and exploratory
  approach brought to learning
• Training Format

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Technical/Skills Training

• Most are specific to job, process, or equipment
• Can be general, such as new policies and
  procedures on waste disposal

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Different Levels of Skills Training

• Entry-level
• Basic skills and procedures
• Advanced Training
• Update employee skills
• Specific skills improvement
• New equipment/procedure training

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Safety Training

• Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  (OSHA)
• Establishes safety standards
• Conducts safety inspections
• Grants safety variances as appropriate
• Cites violations

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Safety Program Needs

• Top management support and reinforcement
• Employee involvement
• Regular and recurrent safety training
• Effective safety monitoring

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Safety Training Needs for Production Workers

• Recognizing, avoiding and preventing unsafe
  conditions
• How to use/handle dangerous machinery, tools, and
  substances
• Use of protective clothing, systems, and devices
• Controlling hazards of any type

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Quality Training

• Quality providing the product the customer
  needs when s/he needs it, at a cost the customer
  thinks is reasonable
• Need to provide a continuous quality improvement
  program
• Employees need to know basic statistics to
  implement most quality improvement programs

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Quality Improvement Concerns

SOURCE Mandal, P., Howell, A. Sohal, A. S.
(1998). A systemic approach to quality
improvements The interactions between the
technical, human and quality systems. Total
Quality Management, 9, 7999.
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Total Quality Management

• Fundamental Skills
• Employees must be able to work in teams
• Employees must be able to collect, analyze, and
  evaluate quantitative data

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Two Phases for Quality Training

• Quality Awareness training managers in concept
  of quality improvement
• In-depth Training
• Process skills
• Work coordination, problem solving, conflict
  resolution
• Quality skills
• Techniques and tools to improve quality

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Needs for Quality Training

• Must be comprehensive
• Include both process and quality skills
• Needs continual and positive follow-up
• Training is not enough! You need management
  commitment, employee involvement, rewards, and
  integrated performance evaluation

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Quality Training and ISO 9000

• International quality standards
• Three phases
• Document writing
• Implementation
• Includes company-wide training
• Systems effectiveness assessment

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Interpersonal Skills Training

• Skills needed to work with other people
• Communication
• Customer relations
• Selling
• Teamwork

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Most Common Interpersonal Skills Training

• Team building
• Listening skills
• Delegation skills

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Why Interpersonal Skills Training is Needed

• Increased use of team-based approach to
  accomplishing work
• Entrants into workforce lack needed skills
• High school, college and graduate-level
• Increasingly multicultural workplace
• Global economy

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Sales Training

• Goals
• Increased team productivity
• Lower turnover
• Enhanced communication within and between all
  organizational levels
• Better morale
• Increased self-management of sales teams
• Better customer relations

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Customer Relations/Service Training

• Introduce customer service training throughout
  organization
• Train frontline personnel in interpersonal skills
  and operational practices
• Train service managers in coaching and enforcing
  service standards
• Provide incentives

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Team Building/Training

• Increased use of teams as basic organizational
  element
• Two sets of team-related skills
• Task Skills skills needed for accomplishing a
  teams work objectives
• Process Skills how to work in a team and
  maintain team relationships

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Four Models of Team Building
Interpersonal Relations
An increase in teamwork skills (mutual
supportiveness, communication, sharing ideas)  
Become involved in action planning for the
solution of problems, as well as implementing and
evaluating the solutions  
SOURCE Salas, E., Rozell, D., Mullen, B.,
Driskell, J. E. (1999). The effect of team
building on performance An integration. Small
Group Research, 30, 309329.
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Variables to Increase Team Effectiveness
SOURCE Werner, J. M., Lester, S. W. (2001).
Applying a team effectiveness framework to the
performance of student case teams. HRD Quarterly,
12(4), 385402.
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Role of Labor Unions in Training

• Joint Training Programs
• Most common are safety and health, job skills,
  communication skills, and displaced worker
  assistance
• Many other programs are job- and company-specific

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Professional Development and Education

• Earning and maintaining licensure and
  certification in a field of work
• Periodic need for continuing education

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Providers of Continuing Education

• Colleges and universities
• Professional associations
• Company-sponsored continuing education efforts

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Colleges and Universities

• Substantive expertise available
• Courses might be tailored to job/profession
• Organizations can choose instructors
• College credit may be earned

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Professional Associations

• Conferences, workshops, meetings
• Journals, magazines, newsletters
• Pre-certification and post-certification workshops

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Company-Sponsored Continuing Education

• Corporate universities
• Programs are organization specific
• Staff can be in-house, out-of-house and retirees
• Can incorporate latest technology into training

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HRDs Roles in Continuing Education (CE)

• Enabler foster effective distribution of CE
  throughout organization
• Resource Provider tuition aid, compensation for
  travel expenses, professional fees
• Monitor assess CE to ensure professional
  development process is working as desired

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Summary

• Need for skilled workers is increasing
• Entry-level personnel need basic and literacy
  training
• Global economy and multicultural issues need to
  be addressed
• Professional growth must be supported
• Need to be proactive in the face of changing
  technology