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This study explores the hypothesized relationship between dimensions of the Five Factor model of personality, goal orientation, self-efficacy, and intent to transfer training on the job. This study attempts to model the complex relationship between these characteristics and intent to transfer using [a] structural equation modeling approach. A set of propositions is presented for each individual variable and its relationship to intent to transfer. Finally, a model of relationships is tested and the results are discussed. The findings revealed that conscientiousness was the only dispositional variable that had a significant relationship to intent to transfer. In addition, control variables, learner readiness and motivation to transfer, were significant in the model. The results suggest that dispositions may not be as important in the transfer system as other constructs like situational, motivational, and ability variables. Recommendations for further research and testing of the model are discussed.

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A collaborative action research study in teacher education is described, in which mature-age trainee teachers of technology studies (who had previously been tradespeople) initially reproduced significant aspects of their former workplace culture within classes at an institute of education. Ways of enabling cultural production to generate a more open learning climate are described and analysed, particularly the use of narrative as a resource for cultural change. Links between changes in culture, knowledge skill levels and identities within a learning group, and subsequent innovations made elsewhere, are also discussed. Such links are related to questions of learning transfer and implications for vocational education are explored. Show less

Most research and conceptualizing of training transfer assumes that the content of the training is irrelevant in whether or not or to what extent transfer is successful. The singular perspective that all training is the same when it comes to issues of training transfer is misguided. This is especially true for the types of training that have been traditionally referred to as hard-skills (technical) and soft-skills (intrapersonal and interpersonal) training. It is hypothesized that this singular perspective of making no differentiation between hard and soft skills can actually hinder training transfer. It is the contention of this article that this perspective masks significant differences between these two forms of training and the extent to which each transfers to the job. Anecdotal evidence has emphasized that soft-skills training is significantly less likely to transfer from training to the job than hard-skills training. Soft-skills training, rather than hard-skills training, has primarily been discussed in the [human resource development] HRD literature. This is easily reflected in reviews of the training-transfer literature. Consequently, from this perspective, the work on training transfer has almost been exclusively based upon soft-skills training. This focus on soft skills may be warranted by the specific difficulty in transferring soft skills (intrapersonal and interpersonal) rather than hard skills (technical). This lack of soft-skill transfer results in an extremely costly waste of time, energy, and money. This article discusses differences that are hypothesized to exist between hard- (technical) and soft- (intrapersonal and interpersonal) skills training that we believe impact the degree of training transfer achieved. It is our belief that differentiating between hard and soft skills may add greatly to our understanding of training transfer and additional ways of its facilitation. This article also contends that development of a more robust and comprehensive model of training transfer must consider training content.

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The management literature provides a variety of recommendations as to how workers’ customer orientation might be improved, including through training. Crucial factors in the process of transferring the contents of service quality training programs to practice, however, have not yet been sufficiently analysed. This study proposes and tests a model of transfer motivation and training transfer via structural equation modelling, validating Baldwin and Ford’s framework and Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation. Following the recommendation of Alliger et al., the present study analyses the relationship between Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation, paying attention to the specificity of the measures at each level. The survey collects data from 213 German bank employees who attended a training program aimed at improving service quality. As hypothesized, the perceived practical relevance of the training was found to exert a strong influence on the reaction of the participants and had a substantial total effect on the motivation to transfer and on actual transfer. Subject to the limitations of the research methodology employed here, it is concluded that trainee satisfaction needs to be conceptually distinguished from perceived practical relevance and that the latter is the main driving force for transfer motivation and transfer.

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Despite the fact that firms invest in training, there is considerable evidence to show that training programmes often fail to achieve the intended result of improving worker and organization performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the medium- to long-term effects of training programmes on firms by means of an integrated research model combining the principal factors that the existing literature has shown to be related to training transfer and also by examining the relationship between training transfer and operational performance. The transfer factors chosen are training design, trainee self-efficacy and work environment. The validity of this model is tested by applying the structural equation modelling approach to data from 126 employees who have participated in various training programmes in a number of Greek organizations. The results indicate that the design of a training programme has the strongest impact on post-training job performance, along with trainees’ self-efficacy and post-training behaviour.

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This paper is ambitious of investigating the mediating role of transfer motivation on trainee characteristics in transferring training on the population of Nigerian teachers. An aggregate of 1,000 copies of the questionnaire was distributed to the respondents in an Education Board in Nigeria. Totally, 605 copies of the questionnaire were finally retained for analysis. Smart-PLS's measurement model, structural model and Sobel test were the techniques employed to assess and evaluate the statistical significance of relevant path coefficients. The findings showed that the extent to which employees are engrossed in organizational commitment and fully involved in their jobs would drive them to be desirous in making persistent and intense efforts towards utilizing skills and knowledge learned in the work settings. Also, the findings of this study highlighted that transfer motivation is a fundamental element in the transfer of training processes.

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Intended for educational practitioners interested in direct application of learning and cognitive style to the classroom and the encouragement of transfer skill acquisition, this document is a review and synthesis of cognitive, learning, and teaching style literature with application to adult life stages and development. The first section of the document is primarily an overview, discussion and merging of cognitive and learning styles with transfer skills. ‘Linking Style and Transfer Skills’ discusses what is known about transfer skills and transfer skill acquisition, and then presents the notion of style and some of its elements as they relate to transfer skill acquisition. Chapters that follow examine the literature on cognitive style and learning style separately. Implications for research on all three of the concepts (transfer skills, cognitive styles, and learning styles) are offered within the context of a discussion teaching style. Current applications in educational and training environments are discussed and various inventories for assessing cognitive/learning styles are identified and compared to assist the reader in selecting a learning style approach. A number of literal and figurative illustrations are used throughout the monograph.

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Founded in 1971, Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) is an intergovernmental framework allowing the co-ordination of nationally funded research on a European level. COST Action 11 investigates different aspects of flexibility, mobility and transferability of vocational competencies. Working Group 5 focuses on aspects of evaluation and assessment of these attributes in Member States of the European Union (EU). This paper is one of a series examining specific evaluation/assessment problems within a national context but with general relevance to the European community. More flexible systems of adult and vocational education create new demands for the assessment of individual students. This paper discusses aspects of the relationship between the increasing need for flexibility of language courses in adult education and vocational education and the demand for comparability and standards of certification. The author outlines his work on assessment in a flexible system and discusses the paradox of certification and flexibility. An example is provided of an attempt to address this paradox by constructing a flexible system of language testing. A structural model of language learning used in Europe and a measurement model designed by Cito (Dutch National Institute for Educational Measurement) for assessment are described.

The volume from which this paper is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 67.267. Selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 67.268 to TD/TNC 67.279. Show less

Significant changes have occurred over the last decade within the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system. Not least amongst these has been a shift from a predominantly traditional face-to-face classroom model of program delivery to more flexible models informed by the needs of clients. To lead this revolution, in 1991 the Australian Commonwealth and State Ministers for Training established the Flexible Delivery Working Party. A series of reports followed that sought to develop a policy framework, including a definition of flexible delivery, and its principles and characteristics. Despite these efforts, project funding and national staff development initiatives, several difficulties have been experienced in the ‘take-up’ of flexible delivery; problems that we argue are related to how the dissemination of innovative practice is conceived. Specifically, the literature and research on the diffusion of innovations points to the efficacy of informal social networks ‘in which individuals adopt the new idea as a result of talking with other individuals who have already adopted it’ (Valente, 1995, p. ix). Following a discussion of these issues, the article concludes by arguing the need for research of innovative practice transfer within VET in Australia, using qualitative case study in order to develop an in-depth and rich description of the process, and facilitate greater understanding of how it works in practice.

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