Understand the purpose and context of learning and development free essay sample

There are many reason why people want to learn and develop themselves, to gain more knowledge, experience new things, gain extra qualifications and to promote and project themselves forward for advancement. Myself, I like to gain as much knowledge and understanding of how things work and how to do a job the best that I can as well as gaining as many qualifications as I can also. So with that in mind, I have found that pushing myself forward and learning new skills has enabled me to gain the qualifications and skills to land the role of Trainer here at Wilkinson Service Centre 2. For Wilkinson, the real reason will be so that its employees have the right tools to carry out their jobs. Organisations which are keen to improve their productivity, efficiency and profitability will look to move beyond mandatory training and look at more diverse learning and development activities which will enable the employees to maximise their potential and provide a valuable resource for the organisation. We will write a custom essay sample on Understand the purpose and context of learning and development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I have found that there are several reasons why team members want to learn, one of the key factors is the ever changing world we live in and the advances in technology that come with it. If I want to keep up, I must evolve and change with the times, that means I must always be willing to learn and develop in my role as a Trainer and pass that knowledge on. Fundamentally Wilkinson needs to provide learning and development to improve the skill level in its workforce and develop its teams and individuals to be polished and professional competitors in the market place. But sometimes change is the driving force behind learning and development, as the case is at present with the introduction for project Drive in the form of a new shift Patten to include 24 hour operations. So this learning and development can be from basic Maths and English, NVQs, collage funded courses to sign language and promotional individual tailored development courses. So Wilkinson is looking at improving its work force and individual basic Maths and English, specially helping our eastern European workers (Polish) by entering into a partnership with Colag Gwent to provide English as a second language (EASL) in work time at no cost to the employee. This being a two way partnership with team members improving their knowledge and understanding as well as speaking English and Wilkinson having team members from the eastern European countries that can be understood by the local team members. In fact, we have recently had a team member from Poland promoted to a team leader’s position whereby they now look after the needs of twenty team members in her team. At the same time Wilkinson actively look out for potential candidates for promotion within the Service Centre. Some team members will look for development, some will wait until a job become available, but as a Trainer, I will talent spot and coach individuals through Jenison e-learning programmes attached to the individual LMS (Learning Management System) profile so that they have some basic understanding before applying for a promotional advancement. 1. 2 Learning and development primarily takes place within on the job training by coaches and mentors here in Wilkinson. As a trainer, I assist in the PC side of electronic learning as well as individual training programmes that require monitoring. But also when change comes around. Each year most of the management will be moved to new teams and departments for the year, this is re-organising the team, and this requires myself and the other trainers to be on our toes to assist in bedding them in. New team members to management are required to complete several electronic learning programmes, such as Jenison, PCI and a variety of success planning electronically. Some of this PC based learning can take place in the dedicated training room or training cabin, with assistance if needed, but as well, the need to muli-skill management so that they may move more freely between departments is a must. Recently a new safety knife was introduced by Martor into the business which required a team of trainers which included myself to go around the Service Centre and retrain all team members on its use, thereby complying with Health and Safety legislation. Again, for those team members taking part in first level skills and EASL courses offered in partnership with Colag Gwent have a dedicated learning suit in the Service Centre free of use. So Wilkinson use both internal and external learning providers. Here we use several including, Colag Gwent, Wallace Cameroon, T2, Martor and RespiSafe to name a few outside organizations that Wilkinson have used in the last year. and most of them provide their own equipment; we just provide the training room or training cabin for use. Some of the learning environments on offer are driven by outside agencies and so they will set different routes and time allocated. If on the other hand I am tasked with developing a new team member into a new roll a rough plan will be developed by myself with a time scale. This will be very flexible as a team member can learn much faster than others so I tend to go at the learners speed. In some cases though, maybe when a development course is on offer it may only be for a few hours in a classroom and that is it. Some times a monthly workshop may be conducted. Again the training can be conducted as one to one, coaching, shadowing, classroom, workshop and course development and can range in time between a few hours, weekly or monthly depending and the length of the training. Comparing the different forms of learning environments can be quite hard here in Wilkinson but as a trainer I am very focused on individual needs training. Any outside agency provided training has a tendency to be classroom based formal in our training room, with a set agenda and time frame with a structured flow and direction. Some of these courses like the LMS workshops will have several sessions that are one day per month for a few months that are planned to cover certain topics with homework assignments to be completed prior to the next session. Others are once a month meetings for an hour or so to review work completed and advise, plan and set new targets for completion such as NVQ’s. They are provided by an outside agency but the time limit is more flexible and even though a time limit is set for completion often this is extended for completion. On the other hand some courses provide by outside agencies are intense, for example the Cameroon Wallace â€Å"First Aid at Work course is either a two day refresher course with a practical exam at the end, pass or fail to complete to the five day First Aid at Work course for new First Aid trained team members which will cover the topic’s in more detail, with homework in the evening and a pass or fail practical exam at the end of the course. My own style of training will be one to one or groups of no more than five. Even though I have a time limit to conduct the training it is very relaxed and will move at the slowest team members pace. It is mainly conducted on the shop floor with plenty of practical demonstrations and hands on activities.