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Informal mentoring occurs spontaneously in workplaces and has many reported benefits for the mentee, the mentor and the organisations in which they work. Driven by pressing workforce development needs and a desire to engage employees, many organisations are introducing formal mentoring initiatives in an effort to maximise these benefits. In an era when employees complain of training fatigue, mentoring offers a complementary form of development that is tailored to individual needs, allows for self-paced progression and requires less time away from work. This paper draws on case study research within the Australian rail industry and relevant literature to inform the development of a national mentoring framework for rail. We review the transition of workplace mentoring from its origins in the apprenticeship model to the latest trends using smart technology. Historically, workplace mentoring has been characterised by four facets: a valued relationship between mentor and mentee, developmental learning, career and psychosocial support, and a shared desire for the mentee to grow. While mentoring is viewed positively in human resource development (HRD) circles, the research has revealed some hidden issues that can influence the success of formal initiatives. The review considers the design and implementation of mentoring programs, including mentor and mentee selection, matching and training, ethical issues, standards, and the evaluation of mentoring programs. Given that formal mentoring cannot replicate the informal processes, we also discuss the documented limitations of formal workplace initiatives. Formal mentoring initiatives can offer considerable benefits to all parties, but only with organisational commitment and the necessary resources to support success.

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This report contributes to the activities of the [Cooperative Research Centre] CRC for Rail Innovation’s Workforce Development Program by scoping the feasibility of developing and introducing a national tertiary qualification and career pathway for rail incident investigators. The report considers international trends and identifies current practices from a selection of rail organisation and safety agencies. Drawing findings from a review of the literature and a range of expertise in the area of incident investigation, emerging issues and possibilities are identified for further research.

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There is a growing interest among senior managers, human resource professionals and business school academics about evaluating the strategic benefits of workplace learning, particularly how organised training and development activities contribute to an organisation's success. Opinion is polarised: one school of thought takes a pro-human resource standpoint and advocates a strong and irrefutable connection, while the other view offers a more critical and independent perspective, arguing the evidence is not convincing. Despite this division, all sides give the impression that the best chance for evaluating the success of training may rest in aligning learning and development activities with business strategy. The term alignment has grown to become a popular expression for directing effort towards organisational success. However, this is not as straightforward as it may first appear, as business strategy can change perpetually - especially in a competitive and globalised marketplace. It has been suggested that the increasing complexity of what organisations have to deal with, makes strategic planning a tenuous activity, if not almost impossible. These assertions present a significant challenge for those wishing to align training activities with strategy and this paper contends the term alignment needs to be understood more fully if is to serve a useful purpose. Drawing on case study evidence collected in the New Zealand manufacturing sector, this paper examines how three organisations responded to global market challenges, and explores how workplace training and human resource development projects concealed a multi-dimensional face of alignment, offering both strengths and limitations to the success of the enterprise. Employees from five different roles within three organisations took part in in-depth interviews. Information from a literature review and documents from the organisations complement the evidence. The findings offer new possibilities for aligning human resource development initiatives successfully with business strategy.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 11th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 92.459 to TD/TNC 92.499 and from TD/TNC 92.701 to TD/TNC 92.716. Show less

Australian organisations are concerned about the global shortage of leadership talent and the increasing mobility of leaders. At the same time, studies are raising awareness among executives of the need to develop a cohort of leaders for the future. The rail industry is one sector that has been deliberating on how leadership capability can be enhanced by putting aside organisational and/or state differences in favour of a national, harmonised approach to nurture leadership development. At a time when Australian leadership talent is in short supply, this article draws on findings from research involving six major rail organisations working in partnership with universities within an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

The article finds that leadership development programs within the industry are infrequent, undervalued and under-resourced. It highlights the critical importance of gaining executive commitment, and develops a formative evaluation tool of 10 principles and evaluation criteria forming observable, measurable and evidence-based standards that can be appraised at the start of leadership development initiatives and programs and monitored as they unfold. The article illustrates how engaging executives in a 'formative evaluation' process before embarking on leadership development initiatives has the potential to promote successful and sustainable programs.

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This report forms part of the [Cooperative Research Centre for Rail Innovation's] CRC's Education and Training Program activities in the area of workforce development, more specifically scoping the key developments and emerging issues that impact on national capability in leadership and management development (L&MD). The report considers international trends, what a selection of rail organisations are doing currently to develop leadership and management capability, identifies potential development needs and suggests areas for further research as a main CRC project.

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This report is part of the Education and Training Program which focuses on improving the quality and promoting the development of national approaches to training. This report examines current approaches to training in the areas of safety, compliance and common technical areas across a small group of [Cooperative Research Centre] CRC participant organisations. It explores ways in which evaluation practices might be used to enhance quality, promote benchmarking and encourage shared approaches to training and development. The report concludes with suggestions for further research which can inform practices across CRC participant organisations.

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Purpose - This paper presents research-based insight on the challenges of evaluating training activities in today's complex organizational settings. Design/methodology/approach - The research is taken from three case studies conducted in the New Zealand manufacturing sector, as well as sources of relevant literature. The commentary takes a critical-realist perspective and challenges learning and development professionals to address the poor reputation of training evaluation. Findings - Human resource practitioners recognise the importance of gaining feedback from learning events, but research reports question the thoroughness of evaluation processes, claiming they rarely happen to the satisfaction of management. Consequently, training budgets become an easy target during periods of rationalization. The problem centres on overcoming the complexity of defining a meaningful cause/effect relationship between the training and resultant benefit. This research discovered the presence of an 'evaluation vacuum' and nine thematic areas requiring close attention. The paper offers reasons why the evaluation of training is becoming increasingly difficult. Research limitations - The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of training evaluation in both straightforward and complex learning environments. Practical implications - The paper has real and practical implications for human resource professionals. Evaluation of training is not a trivial issue and organizations need to get much better at explaining the beneficial outcomes derived from investments in training. Originality/value - This paper will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about evaluating training. Innovative concepts such as the 'evaluation vacuum' and the term 'learning bleed' clarify priorities and contribute to a new perspective on evaluation.

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Workforce development is a relatively new concept that extends beyond training, and is increasingly used by educationalists, policy-makers and scholars. It draws on human resource development and management, workforce planning and workforce capability development, and is often highlighted in debates on skills shortages where there is a need to increase the pool of skilled workers in critical industries. The literature has claimed that the concept takes us in new directions, and is not merely more of the same. But what does workforce development mean? This chapter opens the book with an analysis of the concept of workforce development, why it has become prominent now and why this book has been written. It then introduces the chapters to follow that serve to illuminate different perspectives and issues that together comprise what we term workforce development.

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The success of workplace training initiatives is increasingly connected with how programs of learning are aligned with, and take account of, the organisational context. This is especially true in the area of leadership and management development where Currie (1999) concluded that unless there was congruence between the context of the organisation as perceived by the participants and the development initiative being introduced, the initiative was likely to be unsuccessful. Using selected findings obtained from a two-year research project within the Australian Rail Industry, as part of the [Cooperative Research Centre] CRC for Rail Innovation, this paper draws insight on how leadership and management capability are being developed in an era of changing contexts. In this setting, context is defined by external characteristics of the rapidly changing environment in which rail organisations operate. Drawing information from the literature on leadership, a selection of rail reports, interview data and a content analysis of learning materials taken from rail organisations, this paper evaluates if current management training programs are developing rail leaders with the knowledge and skills to cope with a selection of ever-changing contexts.

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This report contributes to the activities of the CRC for Rail Innovation's Education and Training Program by scoping the potential of skills recognition in the rail industry. The report reviews the recent Australian and international literature on skills recognition (including recognition of prior learning and recognition of current competencies) in industry and informs on current practices and perspectives pertaining to skills recognition in select rail companies. The report concludes that better understanding of and further development in skills recognition can enhance workforce productivity in the rail industry. Drawing on findings from a review of the literature and consultation with rail companies, emerging issues are identified and possibilities for further research proposed.

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