Unit # 1 - Assignment 1. Per your text, describe the forces affecting the workplace and learning. How can training help companies deal with these forces?

Customer service, employee retention and growth, doing more with less, quality and productivity are some of the issues affecting company’s ability to implement new training and learning tools. Training is a necessity if companies want to maintain competitive. There are several forces that affect learning in the workplace including: globalization, business strategy, demographics and diversity of the workforce, generational differences, talent management, new technology, intangible assets such as human capital, and quality of customer service. Training enables employees to serve …show more content…

The most important step in the training design model is the transfer of training, because it takes knowledge or skills in one area, and is applied to another area within the workplace. The PRACTICE approach consists of eight attributes that help with the transfer of learning. This approach addresses: Procedures, Roles and responsibilities, Aids on the job, Coaching, Targets, Incentives, Communication, and Effective. Employees need to know what is expected of them, and be coached in areas of weakness, so they can strengthen the organization as a whole. 3. Go to the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) home page at http://www.astd.org/. Find an article related to training and summarize the main topic and briefly identify how it relates to the course topics in the first two chapters of your text.
Preston Brown in Making Training Strategic discusses how there should be a work plan that address current skill gap, how to get employees to acquire those skills, and are they necessary or goal for the future. He goes on to say that, “Aligning training with the agency’s workforce planning process also helps ensure that learning efforts will be strategic. The workforce plan should establish the agency’s strategy for ensuring that it has the right number of people with the proper skills to accomplish its mission successfully.” (2012, para 4). This article