Training & Development
Training and development is one of the key functions. It forms the most integral part of the organizational development. The turn of the century has seen increased focus on the same in organizations globally.
So what is training and development then?
Is it really that important to organizational survival or they can survive without the former? Are training and development one and the same thing or are they different?
Training may be described as an endeavour aimed to improve or develop additional competency or skills in an employee on the job one currently holds in order to increase the performance or productivity.
Technically training involves change in attitude, skills or knowledge of a person with the resultant improvement in the behaviour. For training to be effective it has to be a planned activity conducted after a thorough need analysis and target at certain competencies, most important it is to be conducted in a learning atmosphere.
Development
Lots of time training is confused with development, both are different in certain respects yet components of the same system. Development implies opportunities created to help employees grow. It is more of long term or futuristic in nature as opposed to training, which focus on the current job. It also is not limited to the job avenues in the current organisation but may focus on other development aspects also.