The importance of training and development across the world

During the recent years, the stress on human development has been tremendously enhanced owing to the realization of the fact that the educational and professional development alone can bring about a socio-economic transformation capable enough to place the country in the category of developed nations. Experts say that this approach can takeIndiaout of the vicious circle of poverty and underdevelopment and make it progressively and technologically strong due to a continuous availability of scientific and industrial personnel. Management development and training are two sides of the same coin viz., Human Resource Development (HRD). However, a fine line of distinction may be drawn between management development and training. Training is a short term facet of HRD concerned with the development of present skills of a job and also the future skills that would help in its efficient execution. Management development on the contrary is a long term and continuing phenomenon imparting a person with skills and concepts that could prepare him to take up new responsibilities and challenges. Following figure shows the various approaches to cover different levels of management for training and management development (Mishra, 1998)

Apart from this it should be kept in mind that localization is the key to success in training. Some major barriers for different countries are culture, language and social structure of that country. (Training in Global Business World, 2007)

A study of the key ratios relating to the management development and training forming a major part of the HRD, shows that the training & management development expenditure per employee was US $960 in Europe, US $531 inCanada, US $386 inJapanand US $650 inUSA(Mishra R.K., 1998). The training and management development expenditure as percentage of payroll was 3 percent in Europe, 1.5 percent inCanada, 1 percent inJapanand 1.8 percent in theUSA. The employee to trainer ratio was 257:1 in Asia and Pacific, 504:1 inCanada, 1706:1 inJapanand 400:1 inUSA. The percentage of employees receiving training was 75.5 in Europe, 68.9 inCanada, 44.9 inJapanand 75 percent in theUSA. The payments made to outside experts / training institutions as percentage of total expenditure was 45.4 percent in Europe, 27 inCanada, 31 inJapanand 27 percent inUSA. The Indian proportions are miniscule and do not deserve any mention. This can be seen in the context of the expenditure on HRD as a percentage of GDP.USAandFrancespend about 20 percent of their GDP on HRD. A small country such asBelgiumspends about 40 percent on HRD.Indiapledged to spend a mere 6 percent of GDP on HRD in 1986. Currently it spends about 3 percent of its GDP on HRD. All these countries spent about 1- 4 percent of the money on training and management development as a percentage of their turnover. They have integrated their management development and training activities with the primary, secondary and higher education. Motorola, a US based company spends about US $1 Billion on management development and training. The company proposes to hike this outlay. On an average each employee spends about 160 hours per year on training. The company has set up a university and has adopted 32 districts in theUSAto upgrade the standards of education. InJapan, informal management development and training is more widespread as compared to the formal, on the job and off the job training and management development as existing inIndia. An average Japanese employee spends about 100 hours in training per year. Technologically, an average Japanese employee is conversant with the use of CD-ROM, e-mail and company internet, although to a lesser extent than the averageUSemployee. It is claimed thatIndiais emerging as an IT superpower. However, an average Indian employee is wide off the mark as compared to US and Japanese employee. (Mishra, 1998)

References

• Mishra R.K. & Ravishankar S. “Organisational Development in Public Enterprises: Perspectives for 1990s”, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1989, pp: 125- 130.
• “Training in Global Business world” , Available from, http://traininganddevelopment.naukrihub.com/, Retrieved on March 15, 2010