Training and Development (T&D) has been a part of human culture from the beginning of civilization. By sharing our discoveries with one another, applying our learning is a significant hallmark of the human species. Guild apprenticeships, Greek philosophy, the scientific method and military discipline are all examples of early T&D programs.
The Industrial Revolution created a need for more formal T&D strategies. In 1906, the National Society for Promotion of Industrial Education formed. Just a few years later, in 1913, the first cars rolled off the assembly line at Ford. Through the 1920s, unions set up the first training programs for employees, while quality control became an important topic of conversation for all industry.
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order stating that the government should provide training for government employees. In the 1940s, the first train-the-trainer programs were established. The American Society of Training Directors (ASTD) formed, and began publication of its magazine. Theoretical leaps in research brought us Maslow’s hierarchy, Lewin’s Group Dynamics and the National Training Laboratory’s T-groups.
In 1950, Joseph M. Juran and Edward Deming took the quality movement to Japan, where it swiftly took root. Meanwhile, back in the states, ASTD was growing quickly. In 1959, ASTD published Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluating training, essentially forging the connection between training to quality and return on investment.
While we continued to get smarter about learning theory (1973, Malcolm Knowles’ published his theory about Adult Learners) and performance improvement (1982, Peters & Waterman published In Search of Excellence), economic difficulties in the 1970s led to corporate downsizing in the 1980s and 90s. Trainers found themselves out of work if they could not tie their results to improving the bottom line. With fewer people doing more work, trainers began to take on additional roles, such as performance consulting.
An emphasis on results, a need to do more with fewer resources, and the exponential growth of technology combined to create an opportunity for the Training & Development profession. No one knew better how to fix performance issues than the people in the training department, even when the solution was not training. Successful training organizations grew by making their skills and expertise indispensable to their company’s overall performance.
Today, we have outgrown the title Training & Development. This vocation is characterized much more accurately by the term Workplace Learning and Performance. Solidifying this growth in 2004, ASTD published the Competency Model for Learning and Performance and set the stage for gaining recognition from the Department of Labor as a formal profession. In 2006, the first members of the workplace learning and performance profession were awarded the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) credential. As of May 2009, there are more than 700 CPLPs representing the profession.
The following websites were referenced in researching this article.
http://www.workforcelearning.com/library/Short_History.pdf
http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/De-Ele/Downsizing-and-Rightsizing.html
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Thir-Val/Training-and-Development.html
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