Skills Development for Engineers: innovative model for advanced learning in the workplace
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This book questions the effectiveness of current employee learning in most organisations and presents an alternative framework model, which is less costly and more successful. Many practical examples of successful approaches are give in a highly readable format, with many diagrams.
Inspec keywords: management; engineering education
Other keywords: management roles; rotational programs; engineers; advanced learning; skills development; organizational assessment
Subjects: Education and training; Management topics; Administration and management; Management issues; Control education and training; Education and training; Computing education and training
- Book DOI: 10.1049/PBMT020E
- Chapter DOI: 10.1049/PBMT020E
- ISBN : 9780852969793
- e-ISBN: 9781849191708
- Page count: 140
- Format: PDF
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Front Matter
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Part 1: An innovative model
1 Introduction
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p.
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Any Company, Inc. (a fictitious, but typical corporation) is an inter national manufacturer of mechanical and electronic devices. While this company has been in business for over 100 years, increased worldwide competition has recently squeezed its profit margin, and significantly decreased its ability to differentiate its products from others on the mar ket. As would be expected of a company with a reputation for innovative leadership, Any Company has responded to its changing environment with new work systems and a revised organizational structure. These moves were designed to improve product quality, better understand customer needs, and reduce product development time and costs.
2 Moving beyond the classroom
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p.
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The importance of lifelong learning cannot be seriously questioned. Not only within industrial careers but in all aspects of life, the rapid pace of technological change requires everyone to continue learning throughout life.This chapter begins by looking carefully at several criteria important to the ongoing learning process in industry. Attention then turns to the various popular training methods and tools, paying special attention to their ability to address the criteria that have been identified. Several specific examples are then be provided to demonstrate how these various criteria impact the selection of training methods and tools.
3 Management roles
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This chapter begins by addressing the specific problem of building management support. The roles of engineering management in creating the foundation of a new learning model are then described in successive sections. Their active involvement in identifying the types of positions, identifying the subjects in which learning is required for those positions, and finally, identifying a required progression of proficiency are each be taken up in turn. Each section begins with a general discussion of the principles and objectives. This discussion is then be followed by several specific examples.
4 Mechanisms for advanced learning
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In this chapter, several practical scenarios are introduced where an industrial need called for a training intervention. The final such scenario demonstrates the case in an engineering organization where mechanisms are needed to support the development of advanced proficiencies in a small number of employees. The resulting learning matrices and proficiency expectations provide a framework of career development goals for all technical employees. The purpose is to take a detailed look at how new learning is acquired and the types of learning interventions that are appropriate for supporting the development of advanced proficiencies.
5 Communicating the information
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p.
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The focus of this chapter is on the creation of a database for maintaining and sharing the learning matrices and proficiency development recommendations. The database must meet the following criteria: common subject definitions; linkage between learning matrices and subject definitions, recognizing that more than one learning matrix may call upon the same subject; write control; revision and document control; ease of use; accessibility. Hypertext software (such as an intranet, or Windows 'Help' files) is very well suited to meet the criteria required of the learning matrix database. This chapter concludes the construction and implementation of the experiential learning model.
6 Employees own their own development
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p.
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In this chapter and the next, the learning matrix database developed and implemented in the preceding chapters is applied to the individual employee's continued development. This chapter discusses employee learning from the perspective of the individual employee.
7 The supervisor's role
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p.
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This chapter addresses two very different aspects of management involvement in the employees' continued learning process. It revisits the self-assessment and employee development prioritization processes, now from the supervisor's perspective. A corporate-wide support is also mentioned. The employee's direct supervisor may play a role in this aspect, but this role will be shared with the technical leadership throughout the company.
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Part 2: A few further applications
8 Rotational programs
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p.
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As employee development recommendations are created, the emphasis is placed on learning through doing often under the guidance of a mentor or other expert in the discipline being developed. It has been argued that a great deal of learning can occur through careful selection of project assignments and explicit attention to assigning projects that build from the employee's current proficiencies, while allowing the employee to stretch into new realms, and thus develop new proficiencies. This process can be furthered through the use of planned rotational programs specifically designed to meet both indi vidual and organizational needs for increased breadth of understanding. The focus of this chapter is on such programs. The basic goals of long-term rotational programs (as opposed to relatively short-term orientation programs) are discussed. A discussion of the processes involved in developing the program that will best meet a particular company's over all learning goals is then presented. A specific case study is presented to demonstrate the concepts, and the experience gained through developing and implementing the program is shared.
9 Organizational assessment
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p.
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Throughout this book, the subject of addressing the overall learning needs of a technical organization has been mentioned periodically. The tools are now in place to take a more formal look at this subject. This chapter begins with a summary of the needs an organization faces to assess its proficiency across an array of technical subjects. Once again it is shown that the tools developed in this book provide an excellent framework from which organizational assessment can be conducted. The chapter shows how the data obtained from the learning matrix data base and employee self-assessments are used to address the overall needs of the organization.
10 Evaluating program effectiveness
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This brief chapter addresses an admittedly very different subject and the reader might question its inclusion in this book. The subject is that of measuring the effectiveness of training and development programs. There are two reasons for introducing the topic at this point. First, it is a topic that receives a great deal of attention in industry in the continuing effort to control costs and remain competitive, corporate leaders are often found asking their training directors to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of programs. This reason alone is not sufficient to include the subject in a book discussing tools for advanced learning models, but the second reason is that the tools that have been described in this book can easily be used to make a nice contribution to training evaluation. The first section provides a brief review of training effectiveness measures - what it is that is being measured, and why. Sections 10.3 and 10.4 then describe a simple extension of the advanced learning tools to provide a measure of program effectiveness.
11 There is no such thing as a free lunch
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p.
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The purpose of this book has been to provide a learning model that can be used in the workplace to (1) place the focus on continued development of advanced proficiencies in subjects critical to the company's success; (2) de-emphasize expensive corporate training efforts that focus on introductory proficiencies; (3) place the responsibility for continued learning with each individual employee, while recognizing the important roles played by supervisors and upper management; (4) provide guidance for, and emphasis on, learning as part of the job and not a separate activity; and (5) create a framework from which organizational assessment and succession planning can be accomplished based on sound data.
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Back Matter
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