The UK government aims to increase both the number, and also the status, of workers with intermediate-level skills, with a view to creating a "modern class of technicians" who can help to bolster economic growth and prosperity. This article considers the prospects for such a policy by focusing on one particular, but neglected, group of…

This article shares the experience and lessons learned by Information Training and Outreach Center for Africa (ITOCA) in rolling out an on-line distance learning course. Key objectives were to explore the efficacy of online courses in increasing skills and awareness of electronic resources access initiatives. This is in the context of responding…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits, barriers and challenges of the transdisciplinary approach to training, and to present findings of a case analysis. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on the research findings of an experimental training program for Greek local government managers co-funded by the European…

Purpose: There is a lack of research covering the training requirements of organisations implementing highly demanding information systems (HDISs). The aim of this paper is to help in the understanding of appropriate training requirements for such systems. Design/methodology/approach: This research investigates the training delivery within a…

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to examine the initiation of the University of the Heads of the Valley Initiative (UHOVI) project and evaluate the development of its focus, materials and structure. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology employs interviews with a purposive sample of local employer stakeholders. The rationale for this…

Background: Most of the current work in physical education champions a culture of "off-beat" educational practices over more traditional and accepted methods. However, in this paper we claim that in order for a student to gain a quality physical education, practices and methods used for novices need to be closely linked to those used by…

Purpose: This paper problematises the experience of trainee teachers in further education (FE) colleges in England. It focuses on colleges as employers and developers of their own teaching staff, 90 per cent of whom are trained "in-service", while in paid employment. The paper aims to explore how a shift towards more expansive workplace…

Local government in Portugal had a good opportunity to modernise through the Programa de Formacao para as Autarquias Locais (Foral) [Training programme for local authorities], implemented between 2000 and 2005. Substantial financial resources were made available through the programme to retrain local government human resources in order to improve…

Corporate universities have emerged as a mechanism for providing companies with a wide variety of training and development activities. They are a recent but under-researched phenomenon, and given their substantial budgets, it might be expected that they would wish to evaluate what they do. The authors explore the evaluation practices of six…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that drive a firm's decision to invest in training in India's IT-enabled services/business process outsourcing (ITeS/BPO) sector. It aims to consider a much-neglected area and an often-cited need to consider external factors, especially the needs of an organisation's clients in a firm's…

The inclusion of an Environmental Awareness Module (EAM) within Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Spain is considered a factor of overriding importance due to the current need to incorporate environmental awareness within society as a whole but also within particular occupations and professional practices involved both in jobs relating to…

The authors are designing and carrying out some training sessions based on serious games with customers from different business environments and with some university student groups, both in northern Italy. Some business case studies are described in this article specifying the context, the training goal, the adopted training solution and the main…

A study examined structured on-the-job training (SOJT) within the organizational context of 8 Dutch firms exploring more than 500 individuals each. Between 7 and 19 individuals (trainees, trainers, supervisors, managers, and/or human resource development officers) were interviewed at each firm. The effectiveness of SOJT was found to be greatly…

A study examined on-the-job training (OJT) at 8 Dutch firms employing more than 500 individuals each. A case study approach was used to investigate the following: job characteristics, program history, training schedules, training process, training materials, interaction with production, trainee characteristics, trainer characteristics, social…

The research adopts a case study approach (in higher education) to investigate how strategic capabilities might be developed in an organisation through strategic management development (SMD). SMD is defined as "Management development interventions which are intended to enhance the strategic capability and corporate performance of an…