06-09-2013, 04:39 PM
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT IN HOTEL INDUSTRY
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INTRODUCTION
DEFINE TRAINING:
Training is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, and performance. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market[who?] recognize as of 2008 the need to continue training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. People within many professions and occupations may refer to this sort of training as professional development.
DEFINE DEVELOPMENT:
1. The systematic use of scientific and technical knowledge to meet specific objectives or requirements.
2. An extension of the theoretical or practical aspects of a concept, design, discovery, or invention.
3. The process of economic and social transformation that is based on complex cultural and environmental factors and their interactions.
4. The process of adding improvements to a parcel of land, such as grading, subdivisions, drainage, access, roads, utilities.
DEFINE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:
Training is the process of planned programs and procedures undertaken for the improvement of employee's performance in terms of his attitude, skills, knowledge and behavior. These training and development programs can significantly improve the overall performance of organization.
Training is normally viewed as a short process. It is applied to technical staff, lower, middle, senior level management. When applied to lower and middle management staff it is called as training and for senior level it is called managerial development program/executive development program/development program.
HISTORY OF TRAINIG AND DEVELOPMENT:
Since prehistoric times the jobs of adults have been taught to children to prepare them for adulthood. Throughout the centuries societies have changed, have become more complex. The kinds of work to be done, the skills needed, and the tools used to do the work have also changed. In order to manage these changes in the complexity, volume, and content of work, job training also evolved. This paper describes how and why job training changed as work changed.
When humans created artifacts, the need for teaching others how to use those artifacts became necessary. Teaching others to use a tool to perform a task was one of the first goals of training. "As man invented tools, weapons, clothing, shelter, and language, the need for training became an essential ingredient in the march of civilization" (Steinmetz, 1976, p. 1-3). As the artifacts became more complex, different ways of training were developed to be more effective and efficient. "Instructional practices were developed that served the needs of the times, evolving into accepted instructional paradigms" (Brethower and Smalley, 1992, p. 26). These different practices were developed at different times, and some of them changed through the years, but all of them are used today, depending on the training need and situation.
Training is different from education. Training teaches the learner how to do a specific task, such as running a machine, or making a shirt. Education is instruction in the more general knowledge of the society, such as the history of the society, or knowledge of mathematics. As societies developed, there accumulated more knowledge than people could pick up on their own or learn informally from others.
Antiquity: On-The-Job Training
On-the-job training, sometimes called direct instruction (or sit-by-me training in England; King, 1964, p. xvii), is the earliest kind of training. On-the-job training (OJT) is a face-to-face, one-on-one kind of training at the job site, where someone who knows how to do a task shows another how to do it. In antiquity, the kind of work that people did was mainly unskilled or semiskilled work not requiring specialized knowledge. Parents or other members of the group usually knew how to do all the jobs necessary for survival, and could pass their knowledge on to the children through direct instruction.
OJT was used in antiquity because it did not require learners to be able to read or write. Even after writing systems were developed, most peasants and craftsmen could not read or write. Therefore a type of training where one person showed another how to do a task was necessary. The type of work most people did was farming or making crafts, and the tools used were fairly simple. In addition, the volume of production was low, so that only a few artisans at a time needed to be trained in order to handle the work.
On-the-job training is still used today. In fact, it is probably the most popular method of training because at its minimal level it requires only a person who knows how to do the task, and the tools the person uses to do the task. The company doesn't have to arrange for special training other than to assign an experienced worker to train an inexperienced one. It may not be the most effective or the most efficient method, but it is the easiest to arrange.
The advantages of on-the-job training include instant feedback about what the learner is doing right or wrong, allowing correction of the erroneous action immediately. Because the training takes place on the job, it is realistic, therefore no transfer of learning is required. It is inexpensive because no special equipment is needed other than what is normally used on the job.
On the other hand, on-the-job training takes the trainer and materials out of production for the duration of the training time, and requires many experienced trainers--depending on the number of trainees--since the trainer is usually training one person at a time. However, if the volume of production is low, so that the personnel and equipment are available for on-the-job training, then it is the most economical method of training to use. It may not be the most efficient at teaching a task, however; this depends on the learner, the job to be learned, and the teaching abilities of the trainer.
The Middle Ages: Apprenticeship
Although apprenticeships had begun much earlier (according to Steinmetz (1976), rules for governing apprenticeships were included in the Code of Hammurabi in 2100 B. C.), they became more widespread during the Middle Ages. As tools became more complex, and the required knowledge and skills to use them became more specialized, parents or townspeople could no longer teach their children everything. Some children were then apprenticed to craftsmen who had the specialized skills and tools for a particular trade. In exchange for work, the craftsman would teach the child the craft at which he was an expert. "Apprentices usually lived with the master and received practically no pay, except maintenance and training" (Steinmetz, 1976, p. 1-4).
During the Middle Ages artisans produced their wares one at a time, which was sufficient to meet the demand. Because the skills are more specialized and there are more of them to master, apprenticeships last longer than on-the-job training, frequently for years. Apprenticeship continues today in the United States.
The Industrial Revolution: The Classroom
It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that training changed much from on-the-job and apprenticeships. In the 1800s factory schools were created, in which workers were trained in classrooms within the factory walls. In 1872 Hoe and Company, a manufacturer of printing presses in New York City, "had such a volume of business that it was necessary to establish a factory school to train machinists. The old-style apprentice system was inadequate" (Steinmetz, 1976, pp. 1-6). Classrooms by that time had become the customary places of education, and were simply recreated in the factories, with the classroom subjects being how to do the tasks required in the factory.
Why did factories turn to classroom training at that time? The machines of the Industrial Revolution greatly increased the ability of the factory to produce concrete goods quickly and cheaply, so more workers were needed to run the machines. The factory owners wanted the workers trained quickly because there was a large demand for the produced goods. Since the machines were much more complicated than the tools of the agrarian society of the past, and training needed to be accomplished quickly, the training methods of the past were inadequate.
Whenever it has become vital for a company to train large numbers of men on machine operations, especially on today's complicated machines, previously used methods have frequently proved inadequate. Most of the training programs conducted by industry were established to handle normal employment" (Smith, 1942, p. 59).
Vestibule Training
A method of training was developed around 1900 that combined the benefits of the classroom with the benefits of on-the-job training and was a popular form of training in both world wars. This was called vestibule training, or "near-the-job" training. In vestibule training, a classroom or training room, located as close as conditions permit to the department for which the worker is being trained, is furnished with the same machines as are used in production. There are six to ten workers per trainer, who is a skilled worker or supervisor from the company (Smith, 1942, p. 62).
Vestibule training creates a miniature of the department for which the training program is carried on. It utilizes machinery similar to that in operation on the production floor. Qualified instructors, usually highly skilled operators or supervisors, are provided to conduct the program in this special section. Here the new employees are given a course of training in the particular machines they will be required to use and on the exact work they will do when they become a part of the regular production force (Smith, 1942, p. 59).
The advantages of vestibule training are many. The workers are trained as if on the job, but, according to Smith, "this training [vestibule training] will not interfere with the more vital task of producing, but will still serve to equip these needed employees for their jobs" (Smith, 1942, p. 60). Workers do not have to transfer their knowledge from a classroom to the work floor, and there are few enough workers per trainer that trainees may receive immediate feedback and be able to ask questions more easily than in a classroom. And finally, accidents are minimized because new workers' nervousness about working with unfamiliar machines is abated through simulated production.
After World War II: Individualized Instruction
During World War II training departments had become established in many companies. Business was booming as the world rebuilt itself. Companies wanted their workers trained, but as usual they wanted a more efficient, less expensive method of training. Upon the concept of job analysis and the behaviorism of B.F. Skinner was created the concept of individualized automated instruction. Just as in industrial work, training itself was about to become automated.
Individualized instruction in essence replaces the teacher with systematic or programmed materials. Programmed materials are instruction that has been divided into small steps which are easily understood by the learner. After each step is required an active response by the learner in the form of answering a question, drawing a graph, solving a problem, and so on. Immediate feedback is given after each response. Individualized instruction can be print-based, computer-based, or can use other media as long as the instruction is based on the concepts listed above. Although logical subject matter is easier to individualize into programmed materials, Lysaught (1962) had not found any subject matter that could not be programmed.
Sidney Pressey's testing device in 1926 and B.F. Skinner's behavioralist theory of learning in 1954 were the basis for the new programmed instruction, and the teaching machines in which it could be automated. Skinner's model of programmed learning was linear, in that the author of the materials decided what step to present next, and that step was presented, no matter what the learner wanted. According to Westgaard (1993), "many programmed learning materials are reminiscent of the Gilbreths' thinking" in terms of designing work so there are as few as possible decisions to be made by the worker, or branches by the program (p. 88).