Role of Learning Styles and Theories in Training and Development

This report discusses the role of learning styles and theories in training and development programs. It explores different learning styles and their application in various fields. It also highlights the importance of transferring learning to the workplace and the role of the UK government in training and development events. The report provides insights into the competency movement and the government's contribution to HRD.

HUMAN RESOURCE
DEPARTMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
1.1............................................................................................................................................................3
1.2............................................................................................................................................................4
1.3............................................................................................................................................................5
4.1............................................................................................................................................................5
4.2............................................................................................................................................................6
4.3............................................................................................................................................................7
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................8
2.1............................................................................................................................................................8
2.2............................................................................................................................................................8
2.3............................................................................................................................................................9
3.1..........................................................................................................................................................10
3.2..........................................................................................................................................................10
3.3..........................................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource department (HRD) is an approach which helps individuals in an enterprise to
develop their skills, abilities and knowledge. It plays an important role in providing training and
development program. This report presents different learning styles, theories, role of learning curve and
importance of transferring to actual workplace. It also represents various training needs and methods used
by Sun Court Ltd. to improve its working efficiency. People R Us is a small consultancy firm which
advises Sun Court Ltd. on various issues regarding HR department (Fee, 2014). Through this study
learner will be able to understand process of development of training and evaluation to know its
effectiveness. It will also describe the role of UK government in various training and development events
of Sun Court Ltd.
TASK 1
1.1
Learning means acquiring and modifying skills, knowledge, attitude, behavior, preferences and
values. Learning styles are such methods through which above things are gained by human beings.
Different styles are used by different companies to educate their staff or employees to achieve their
targets. These are as follows:
Kolb’s learning styles
There are four styles which are suggested by David Kolb i.e. converging, diverging, assimilating
and accommodating. These are discussed as under:
 Converging: This learning style does not focus on people but use the abstract concepts, practical
and experimental ideas.
 Diverging: Under this people first observe things rather than implementing them in real. This
focuses more on people instead of practicing it.
 Assimilating: Here, human beings gain a logical knowledge of doing work effectively at
workplace. It is used for those individuals who are engaged in research and inventions.
 Accommodating: It is totally different from all above styles because in this learners learn things
by looking and observing other persons (Kehoe and Wright, 2013). This learning style does not
required any practical, experimental and logical explanation.
Honey and Mumford’s styles

They also suggested four different learning styles such as activists, reflector, theorist and
pragmatist which are explained as under:
 Activists: This style is used to educate those persons who want to practice new things and are
ready to face any consequences or issues involved in that.
 Reflector: It is generally used by many organizations because it includes learning things not only
collecting data from their own but also from different opinions of other individuals.
 Theorist: Persons who want to formulate their own theories by their observations and
experiments follow this style of learning. It is quite similar to assimilating learning style because
here also people think logically.
 Pragmatics: Here, new ideas, thoughts and theories are experimented and implemented.
Solutions are made to overcome from various difficulties and problems.
1.2
Learning curve has a significant impact on the process of learning which reflect performance of
learners. It is very important to transfer learning in real world or workplace to know its effectiveness.
Role of learning curve
Learning curve is a graphical presentation which shows decrease and increase of performance and
experience of person (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016). It is an important technique through which
impact of learning program may be analyzed. Through this graphical representation, relationship between
time spent in learning activities and competency level of individuals are shown. Therefore, this curve
represents progress of people or learners. This curve is used by management of Sun Court Ltd. to
overlook at performance level of their employees.
Importance of transferring learning to workplace
Every enterprise facilitates training and development program to train their employees to perform
their job efficiently. Sun Court Ltd. also provides these learning sessions for their workforce therefore, it
is necessary to transfer this to workplace to know its effectiveness. There are following importance of this
transferring:
 Optimum utilization of funds: Providing training is not so easy task for every firm because an
effective learning program requires lots of funding. If learning is not transferred to the workplace
then all spending on it will go in vain so it is very important to move it to business operations of
Sun Court Ltd.

 Adding value: One of the key objects of learning is to adding value of entity in market. If
enterprise facilitates training sessions and does not transfer it to day to day working of firm then
value of such undertaking will not increase in market place.
 Facing and solving problems: While working in organization employees may face various
problems (Gruman and Saks, 2011). In Sun Court Ltd. also staff of firm has to go through several
problems related to operations and functions of business. To overcome from such difficulties,
they must have prior knowledge of it. Learning sessions help people at workplace to solve such
crisis. Therefore, learning is transferred to workplace to minimize business obstacles.
1.3
Role of learning styles and theories is very important while designing and planning training
sessions. Different types of styles are used by different organizations in various fields. As per the
knowledge and field of person training is provided to them. It is the responsibility of organizer of learning
event to use proper style or theory to make learn people with different categories. For example to train a
scientist assimilating learning style is very effective and on other side to train a new or existing employee
in a corporation accommodating style is useful (Khan, Khan and Mahmood, 2012). Here, both persons are
engaged in different types of job so their technique of learning must also be different to each other.
Similarly, in Sun Court Ltd. various employees work at different level of management. So,
different learning styles help organizer to plan and design training session. Before organizing learning
event, designer required to know working field of learners. After this their potentiality for respective job
is analyzed. The psychology of human being should also take into consideration that how they behave and
perform their job with existing knowledge and skills. After understanding all these organizer will get
clear idea about which style will be suitable to train them. At last, learning event and activities are held by
designer on the basis of chosen learning style. Thus, learning styles contribute a lot in designing and
organizing learning event.
4.1
Role of government of a country is very important in relation to training, development and
lifelong learning. There are following contribution made by UK government in training and development
programs of Sun Court Ltd.: Generate a public norm: Government plays several roles in success of a business. Although it
includes various provisions, norms, rules and regulations; it helps in initiating process of
generating common culture among people that assists to train and develop them.

 Develop HR policies: Government creates HR policies for all organization in country which must
be followed by all entities in the nation. It helps in improving capabilities of employees of every
company. Allocation of funds: The training and development events organized by an undertaking are one
of the difficult and expensive functions because it required lots of funding. Government also
helps firms of UK by providing them money for conducting training and development program
(Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014). It allocates funds for human resource department for
both public as well as private sector enterprises. Promoting HRD: Government promotes various activities of HRD which includes training,
development and lifelong learning. Developing favorable working environment: To run a successful business it is very necessary to
create an effective work environment within the organization. Government of UK also plays a
vital role in creating positive working atmosphere. It can be done by several ways. Many laws
and provisions are made by government in favor of employees working in a corporation. For
example, by passing law which is consist of rights of workers and employees and law regarding
violation of them.
Thus, by above discussion it is clear that government also play an important role in facilitating
training and development program.
4.2
Competency is an ability to perform a given job. This ability requires some other qualifications
also which helps in finishing specific job or work. Here, competency of workforce is determined by
company to know their performance level. For this, performance management program is conducted to
evaluate performance of employees. The performance based on competency is evaluated by employee’s
core competency. Both public and private sector is affected by this competency movement (Boxall and
Purcell, 2011). In past this movement was not considered by any company but by passing of time its
importance in business increases. In public sector, competency of public servants is considered as an
important factor. In order to serve public it is required to develop high competency standards. This helps
in facilitating effective training programs for employees and workers to create them more competent to
perform their jobs. Therefore, to maintain competitive advantage both private and public sector accepted
high competency standards.
In present market, very high level of competition exist for companies due to which enterprises are
more interested in performance gap. It describes the difference between current situation and future

situation of firm. Enterprises in private sector generally invest in performance gap to improve various
activities of entity and to get success over other institutions. This competency movement helped both
private and public organizations to improve their productivity and profitability by offering quality service
in market (Fee, 2014). If there is no competition in market then firms will not try to improve their
activities and functions because no one will be affected by it. But if competition exists in market then
each and every establishment will try to compete with each other this will enhance competency level
among them.
4.3
UK government took many initiatives which contributed to human resource department of Sun
Court Ltd. There are following government institutions which look after in various activities of HRD:
 Trade and industry department
 Work and pension department
 Education department
 Health and safety department
The above agencies provide following services to private corporations in UK:
 Learning and Skills Council helps in funding and planning education for children above 16 years.
 Small and medium sized organizations receive funds to operate their businesses
 Sector Skills Council facilitates training sessions to enhance skills and knowledge of people
engaged in Sun Court Ltd.
 Create standard workforce of specific sector by National Vocational Qualifications.
 These departments also create skilled workforce for industrial purpose
 Ensures good and effective practice of work by investors.
Government of UK adopted simultaneous training methods which are facilitated to small and medium
size organizations that help in promoting development activities of such firms. It also promotes the
economic growth and stability of country (Luthans, et.al., 2010). Training and development program
provided by Sun Court Ltd. are very much effective which facilitate a competitive advantage to this
entity. Training and development program set by UK government for employees of Sun court Ltd. helped
workforce to adopt energetic changes of market environment.

TASK 2
2.1
In an enterprise training need for all employees, workers and management are different to each
other. In Sun Court Ltd. there are three types of department exist namely finance and accounting,
production and marketing (Knowles, Holton III and Swanson, 2014). HR management of Sun Court Ltd.
must design training sessions for these department as per their requirement. Mangers of this entity should
monitor training needs of employees in these departments. Training needs for these are explained below:
 Finance and accounting department: In Sun Court Ltd. learning needs of managers are different
from needs of their subordinates. In this department, managers must be given training to analyze
total availability of funds and other resources from which company can get funding. While
subordinates should be given training for crediting and debiting amount for various operation of
business. Therefore, as per the job of persons their training is decided.
 Marketing department: In this, managers are trained to become effective leaders and decision
makers. Employees must be facilitates training program so they can execute decision made by
higher authority for effective working of firm.
 Production department: Training is provided to managers so that they can make effective
decisions (Wang and Noe, 2010). For this experts are hired by management to train such
managers of Sun Court Ltd. employees and workers in this department must be trained so they
can conduct better production process which helps enterprise to become successful in market
place.
Therefore, from above discussion it is clear that different departments of Sun Court Ltd. have
different training needs according to their job and responsibility they hold.
2.2
Sun Court Ltd. follows various methods of training and development of staff, employees and
management of it. Every technique has some positive as well as negative impact on functioning of
business. These are as under:
 Classroom training: It is one of the most common and effective method of providing training.
Here, all trainees are selected and placed at one place or classroom where they are trained by one
or more than one trainer who trained them by using audio and visual source of learning. This
method has a great advantage that it is cost and time effective because through this a large
number of people are trained at a time. It has a drawback that it does not provide a practical
knowledge which reduces its effectiveness.

 On the job training: In this method, knowledge and skills of persons are enhanced by performing
their actual job at workplace. In some fields theoretical knowledge is not enough, implementation
of their knowledge, skills and expertise is required to perform their job effectively (Guest, 2011).
It has an advantage that, it is very much suitable for such job where practical experiment is
necessary to work. It has a disadvantage also that it does not include theoretical knowledge for
those who are new to a particular job because it is necessary for new comers to be facilitates
theory knowledge before performing it practically.
 Off the job training: According to this method, trainees are trained by trainers away from actual
workplace. In this various ways of training is used like, enhancing skills and knowledge though
meetings, seminars, lectures, business tours, etc. This type of training does not required much
money to spend over it because by participating in meetings, seminars trainees may get ideas for
future benefits of Sun Court Ltd. It does not include a practical experience which is the main
disadvantage of this method.
2.3
Before setting up a learning session every undertaking required to make an effective plan. It is
very important for Sun Court Ltd. to follow a systematic approach for planning and developing learning
event. People R Us plans a following training event for Sun Court Ltd.:
 Aim of organization: It is first step in setting up training event for Sun Court Ltd. Aim of this
entity is to maximize profits and minimizing cost (Jiang, et.al., 2012). To accomplish this
objective organization need to focus on reducing its costs.
 Setting up training need: Here, management of firm identifies their efficiency in achieving their
goals effectively. To achieve organizational targets employees of Sun Court Ltd. need to perform
their work with full efficiency. Therefore, managers of entity decide to conduct different learning
and development programs for various department of enterprise.
 Designing strategy of training: Multiple strategies must be made by different type of worker,
employees and managers of Sun Court Ltd. By developing different strategies management may
be able to run its business effectively. With the use of lecture method various fact and plans of
company are shown by power point presentation.
 Implementation of training event: It is final step where Sun Court Ltd. implements its various
training and development events at decided place and date.

3.1
Evaluation of training program facilitated by Sun Court Ltd. play an important role in
determining success and effectiveness of training at workplace. It is the final process in training approach.
Management must have a knowledge about evaluation means what, when and how should be evaluated. It
is very necessary for Sun Court Ltd. to evaluate its training (Avey, et.al., 2011). For this first of all
management should know what the evaluation is. Evaluation is the feedback which is collected by
researchers from individuals who are related to training events. This feedback plays an essential role
further planning and development of organization. So it facilitates many advantages to Sun Court Ltd.
The purpose of evaluation of training is to know effectiveness of it in Sun Court Ltd. it also helps
in measuring functioning of firm. To know whether it meets organizational objectives or not, it is
important for Sun Court Ltd. to collect data from both primary as well as secondary sources. It is an
effective tool of this entity and is also important to improve its performance and profitability. It also helps
in improving design of training for future aspects. By this, management can identify strengths and
weaknesses of particular training session which helps in improving future activities of business ( De Haas,
2010). Therefore, the main aim of evaluation is to assess whether training is effective in enhancing
performance employees, workers and management of Sun Court Ltd. it is the responsibility of HR
department of this enterprise to do this evaluation.
3.2
HR team of Sun Court Ltd. took part in evaluation of training event for their employees and staff.
In relation to this HR considers following feedbacks:
 Reaction of participants: It is one of the immediate assessments of participants. By reactions of
trainees management can easily understand whether training session was effective or not (Werner
and DeSimone, 2011). Here, an expert team of HR observes the various activities of all trainees
to know their reaction towards training and development program. HR department of Sun Court
Ltd. finds positive reactions from their participants.
 Knowledge and skill acquisition: Under this method of getting feedback, managers prepare
questionnaire related to their training session and its effectiveness in their actual job or work. By
putting these immediate questions before them, managers acquire their knowledge and interest by
their gesture. So, here rate of this acquisition was good.
 Behavioral aspect: After participating in training program behavior of trainees help in knowing
the effectiveness of such session. Sometimes, HR department observe both type of changes in

employees i.e. positive and negative, but here, training event facilitates positive changes in
employees which help in success of business.
 Measuring business improvements: If there is any improvement is seen by management in
working of firm then it is clear that training event was successful. HR department of Sun Court
Ltd. observe over all performance of undertaking and finds measurable improvement in business
(Luthans, et.al., 2010). This event helped organization to minimizing its production cost and
maximizing its profits.
 Measuring by benchmark: It is final step in evaluation process. In this results of current training
sessions are compared with previous events. Sun Court Ltd. obtained impressive results which
increases its percentage of growth.
3.3
HR department of Sun Court Ltd. follows five methods of evaluation training session. All the
methods used by Sun Court Ltd. is very much effective in evaluating learning events. Usually every firm
discusses the success of evaluation before implementing it in actual. After evaluation is made by
managers it is necessary to review its success. Sun Court Ltd. uses all five methods which gives different
feedbacks. The first method used by managers is to know the reactions of people involved in training
program which is a psychological phenomenon (Bratton and Gold, 2012). This expressed the actual and
inner feelings of participants who are part of this event. There are following benefits of this evaluation:
 Skills and knowledge: Through evaluation of learning event, managers come to know the skills
and knowledge developed with in employees of firm. The aim behind providing training and
development program is to enhance skills and knowledge of unskilled persons within workplace.
So, evaluation helped in knowing and understanding level of knowledge and skills of trainees.
 Productivity and profitability: As discussed above that evaluation is done by observing previous
activities and events of company so it helped in understanding the improvement of Sun Court
Ltd. It is one of the main aims of Sun Court Ltd. to generate more profits at low cost of
production. Therefore, by comparing previous data to current data assist this entity to know its
percentage of profit for current year.
 In future aspects: Evaluation of training program also important in relation to future aspects
because it is helpful in conducting future events (Meredith Belbin, 2011). If HR team of Sun
Court Ltd. evaluate its training session then it will be easy to compare it to its future events.

CONCLUSION
This study concluded that Human resource development plays an essential role in growth and
success of Sun Court Ltd. Management of this entity needs to understand the learning styles, theories and
training needs to enhance skills and knowledge of its employees and managers at different levels. To
conduct effective training event managers of Sun Court Ltd. require to follow a proper and systematic
process. Evaluation of training event is necessary to made by management to know its effectiveness at
workplace. Evaluation can be made by observing activities of staff, their performance level, their
reactions and behavior within workplace. UK government also plays a vital role in providing training and
development program to the employees of Sun Court Ltd.

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