Issues and Challenges in Training and Development

Issues

In the field of Human Resource Management (HR), training and development is the area that related with organizational activities which aimed at consummating the capability of individuals and groups in organizational settings. There are a few names, including human resource development, and learning and development.

During the training and development of an organization, there are some issues such as selection of trainees, content of training, institutional environment and so on. Selection of trainees is related to a major concern observed in many training projects. According to the evaluation findings, normally, trainees for long term training in specific technical topics such as demography, statistics or family planning were generally selected. This is because selection requirement was usually clearly defined by the training institutions. Besides that, selection of participants for short-term training or workshops was much less systematic. Assessment showed that people be sent to courses, especially when these were located abroad, and often do not have the necessary substantive background. In a lot cases, trainees were not carefully identified in terms of anticipated use of the training. This problem had become more widespread at interregional workshops where the award of trip tended to cover up the practical reason for participation.

A lot of reports criticized the prevalent tendency to train trainees without reference to their job description. This has led to insufficient preparation of trainees for their future tasks, because of irrelevant curricula. Usually, there were no guidelines to link the trainees that they should be prepared to perform on the job.

Implementation of training is influenced by external forces frequently. The forces come from several factors, such as political stability, economic conditions, stability of training institutions and staff that linger around. These factors have to put more attention on it, because this is important for the institutionalisation of training systems within countries. The purpose is to ensure a continuous supply of qualified personnel. In Honduras, a project was located in a University. The influence of the institutional environment was obvious in the training in demography project. Thus, the University was disturbed by strikes, social and political incidents. These have led to interruption of courses and departure of students. Therefore, the assessment advised to relocate the project in a more stable setting. However, we have to recognise that institutional environment has always beyond the control of managers of training programmes. The requirement of structure is necessary for the sustainability of training effort. Besides that, it has to be settled by the political decision-maker. This is because they have the ultimate responsibility to ensure the best conditions to enable training facilities to respond