Title: Understanding the value of training in the professional workplace: a literature review

Authors: Andrew J. McCarty; Miros?aw J. Skibniewski

Addresses: School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Abstract: This paper provides a review of the recent training and development literature to explore workplace training practices and the realisation of positive, beneficial outcomes in trainees and organisations that implement training initiatives. We review the current literature in the area of techniques used to measure the costs and benefits of training initiatives. We then examine the literature for instances where training has positively impacted individuals, teams, and entire organisations. To foster a holistic understanding of the beneficial outcomes of training, we adopt a multidisciplinary stakeholder-centric perspective to argue that training benefits realised at the individual level may transfer to the team level, and benefits realised at the team level may also transfer to the organisational level. To conclude our exploration of value, training effectiveness and efficiency are investigated. Our review suggests that abundant empirical data and training theory create the ability to better plan training initiatives, measure training outcomes, and understand the potential beneficial impacts of training. Finally, we discuss the implications of this review and directions for future research.

Keywords: training evaluation; continuing learning; adult education; value; measurement; engineering management; return on investment; ROI; literature review; workplace training; training effectiveness; training efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.2015.072676

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2015 Vol.25 No.3, pp.347 - 358

Accepted: 02 Sep 2015
Published online: 23 Oct 2015 *

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