|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
 Since the year dot, training has played a vital role in the development of society. Since prehistoric times parents have passed on to their children the skills and the basic social norms required for life. As human social groupings became larger and more complex the formalization of the means of acquiring the skills that society requires became more sophisticated. Today, we live in a 'knowledge society' and knowledge and information dominates work and employs the largest proportion of the labour force. The omnipotent Internet is the latest means to pass on skills and information to the many millions of people who require training. In Express Exec module 11.03 - The Evolution of Training and Development - Roger Cartwright charts the history of training since the guilds and apprenticeships of the 1400s.
Notes 1.
Mark Nicholson (2000) Managing the Human Animal. Crown, New York.
The members of a craft guild were divided into three classes: masters, journeymen, and apprentices. The master owned the raw material and the tools, and sold the goods manufactured in his own shop for profit. The journeymen and apprentices lived in the master's house. The apprentices, who were beginners in the trade and learnt it under the direction of the master, usually received only their board in return for the work they did. In many cases the apprentice was indentured to the master, the apprentice's parents paying the master a sum of money. During the time span of the indenture the apprentice received no wages and was legally bound to the master who would train the apprentice in the particular trade. After an apprentice had completed his training he became a journeyman and was paid a fixed wage for his labor. In time a journeyman might become a master. However, it was to the advantage of those who were already masters not to increase their own number so that the conditions under which a journeyman might become a master were difficult. After the fourteenth century the requirements became so severe that it was virtually impossible for any journeyman to become a master. New masters tended to come from the master's own offspring.
The new mechanical and engineering trades needed a means of training workers, especially those who migrated into them from agricultural work. A distinct differentiation between skilled and unskilled workers was a feature of the factories that sprang up throughout Europe and North America. The lowliest workers received just enough training to carry out their tasks, but there was a need for skilled engineers and designers. Apprenticeships were seen as a highly beneficial method of providing a skilled workforce in those trades that demanded skill and of retaining the knowledge and experience of older workers. No longer was the apprentice tied to a master, although his (and very occasionally her) parents might have to pay a sum to the owner of the enterprise. The apprentice would be paired with an experienced worker who would train and teach him. Apprenticeships up until quite recently tended to be male dominated, but women entering factory work or domestic service would often be partnered with an older lady on a more informal basis.
The first nation to begin to move to universal educational provision was Prussia. The Prussian Law of 1810 was a reaction against the country's military defeat by France, led by Napoleon, and provided for state secondary (high) schools in addition to primary (elementary) education. Other countries also set up state primary schools or gave public financial aid to church schools in the early nineteenth century, including Denmark in 1807 as well as France and Great Britain in the 1830s. Universal elementary education required a degree of compulsion, especially as young people were able to begin their working careers much earlier than they can today, at least in the developed world. To commence work at the age of 12 was not uncommon. For many poorer families educating a child meant the loss of a potential earner in the household. Laws that made school attendance compulsory were passed in Massachusetts in 1851, to be followed by other American states between 1864 and 1890 (with the exception of the southern states, which delayed compulsion until the early twentieth century). In Europe, compulsion was applied in 1868 in Prussia, in England and Wales in the 1870s (Scotland and Northern Ireland had and retain their own unique system of education), and in France and other countries in the 1880s. Secondary schools had been state institutions in France as in Prussia from the early nineteenth century, although they were fee-paying. In England they remained private institutions until much later. Opportunities for free secondary education for some talented children from state primary schools were provided from the late nineteenth century, but universal secondary education did not become general in most European countries until after 1945. It is salutary to contemplate that this was only so recent. The exponential increase in technology since 1945 could not have occurred without a comprehensive system of universal education. In the much more egalitarian social conditions of the late twentieth century, knowledge and expertise could not be confined to a select few.
This does not mean that there is no link between formal education and training and development. The better formal education a person has received, the more honed will be his or her basic skills and the ability to reason and analyze. A person with a good basic education is likely to be more accomplished at learning new skills than somebody who lacks the basics. The
great leader Winston Spencer Churchill (who did not shine at school
according to his reminiscences in his book My Early Life) stressed
the importance of being competent at using one's native language
in both written and verbal form. He went as far as to hint, hopefully
jokingly, that a failure to speak and write competently should
lead to punishment for the offending child. The events of World
War II and the increasing technological aspect to industry that
the war demonstrated showed that a more educated population was
no longer a luxury but a necessity. Social pressures and changes
throughout the world also demanded that all citizens be granted
access to universal education, regardless of age, gender, or social
position.
Employers who needed the skills but lacked the resources to provide the necessary training in all but the most work-related tasks, and who were reluctant to allow staff time off for training, were nevertheless prepared to help fund the development of vocational training institutes - often called Mechanics' Institutes. Employees who wished to further their careers were encouraged to attend such institutes in their own time, usually in the evening. From the 1880s onwards such vocational institutes were established in towns and cities the length and breadth of North America and Europe. An example is the Canadian town Sault Ste Marie, where a branch of the Mechanics' Institute was formed in 1890 linked to the local library. It is recorded that Francis H. Clergue, a local industrialist, received the thanks of the Mechanics' Institute in 1895 when he obtained 15 subscriptions and by 1896 owned a collection of 967 books. Records of the Crystal Palace in London, the site of the Great Exhibition, state that on 10 June 1863 the place was visited by more than 1000 members of the Society of Arts and representatives of the Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institutes as well as various mayors and others. In
the USA the development of vocational training to meet the needs
of industry received considerable political backing. Massachusetts's
Governor Douglas appointed a commission in 1905 to study the need
for vocational education. The commission was led by C.A. Prosser
(the initiator of the American Vocational Association). The commission
set up several public hearings in the state - which indicated
widespread interest in vocational education, lack of skilled workers
in industries, and the fact that public schools were doing little
to meet the needs of industry and society at the time. The work
of this group led the way for other states to form similar groups
to study vocational education.
Whilst Mechanics' Institutes could provide a rudimentary technical training, they could not provide the broad scientific and technical foundations that were beginning to be needed for a wider range of occupations. Various types of technical colleges and institutes were developed in both North America and Europe to provide further and higher education that concentrated on the practical applications of science and technology. MIT and Caltech in the USA, and UMIST in England, are amongst the best known in the world. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), an establishment with a global reputation, was founded in 1861. UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology) was founded in 1824 as the Manchester Mechanics' Institution. In the early years of the twentieth century it established a reputation as one of the major centers for technical education in the UK and the rest of Europe. In 1956 it became the Manchester College of Science & Technology, and in 1966 it became a part of the University of Manchester and took its present title. Caltech was founded by Amos Troop in 1891 and given the name of Troop University. In 1907 the astronomer Ellery Hale, the first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory, became a member of Troop's board of trustees and envisioned molding it into a first-class institution for engineering and scientific research and education. By 1921, Hale had been joined by chemist Arthur A. Noyes and physicist Robert A. Millikan. These three men set the university, which by then had been renamed the California Institute of Technology (CIT), on the course to international recognition. Unlike many of the universities, these institutions sought links with commercial organizations. By the 1950s the UK - which had led the Industrial Revolution - had developed a system of further-education colleges of technology, polytechnics, and universities in a rather hierarchical configuration. The most able went to the universities, whilst further education was for those who had left school without the necessary qualifications for polytechnic or university entry. If so motivated these individuals could gain further qualifications through full- or part-time study, often financed through the public purse. The colleges of further education and the polytechnics sought ever-closer links with industry and commerce, links that traditional universities were slower to make. These links were strengthened by the introduction of degree ÒsandwichÓ courses - whereby the student spent part of the course in full-time study and the remainder on a work placement. The vast majority of the UK polytechnics became universities in the 1990s but retained their links with the world of business and commerce - links that the more traditional universities have now made. Complaints and comments about 'ivory towers' are now far fewer as higher education has seen the benefits of working with industry and commerce. These benefits are not just financial through sponsorship and professorial chairs but also in staff exchanges and research partnerships.
Many professions and employers now require members and employees to undertake regular CPD to ensure that their knowledge and skills are as up to date as possible. CPD is one of the most important developments in training and development today, together with a growing appreciation that the learning methodologies used in schools, colleges, and universities are far from ideal when dealing with employees who have a wealth of experience. From the 1970s onwards it began to become apparent that adults learn in very different ways to children and that work-based training and development could not use the same techniques as schools.
For more information go to Express Exec module 11.03
|
|
 |
||
|