Learning and Development Theories

This assignment delves into several key learning theories, including Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle and the Forgetting Curve. It examines child and young person development, emphasizing relevant models and concepts. Additionally, it touches upon topics like sustainable development goals, globalization, emotional intelligence, and training evaluation methods.

HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Various types of learning styles.......................................................................................1
1.2 Function of learning curve................................................................................................4
1.3 Contribution of learning theories in organising an learning event...................................5
4.1 Role of government in learning and development...........................................................6
4.2 Impact of development of competencies on private and public sector............................7
4.3 Contribution of Contemporary training programme of UK government........................8
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
2.1 Training needs of staff at various level in hierarchy........................................................9
2.2 Advantage and disadvantage of training techniques........................................................9
2.3 Systematic approach to training and development event...............................................10
3.1 Evaluation plan of training and development event.......................................................11
3.2 Evaluating the event.......................................................................................................12
3.3 Success of evaluation approaches..................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource development programme helps in developing new skills and capabilities
in individual to increase efficiency of employee while working in organisation. Different
companies are engaged in developing newer competencies according to changing external
environmental factors. The human being are the most flexible asset for any organisation which
can be moulded according to changing requirements of firm through training and development.
Learning outcomes from the training should be practised by employee during working in
organisation in order to enhance the performance level of employee in many folds (Ayyagari,
Grover and Purvis, 2011).
The companies are engaged in organising various events related to learning and
development of workforce through continuous mentoring, coaching, succession planning and
career development plans. All these activities brings new competencies in behaviour of
individual. Development is an long term process that includes overall development of previously
of individual. Government policies largely motivates the companies to organise various training
and development plans to enhance profitability of firm and provides higher satisfaction to
workforce.
In this particular report the various learning styles that are followed by the participants of
training and development plan are accessed. This helps increasing success rate of training
programme that ultimately contributes in increased profit of firms. This report also studies about
various theories that can helps in increasing the rate of gaining experience by employee in
workplace.
TASK 1
1.1 Various types of learning styles.
The various learning styles depends on the experience of an individual and capabilities to
implement new concept development through interpreting gained experience. Kolbs model
defines various aspects that affects an individual learning style. This model is based on the
Concrete experience, Reflective observation which is flowed by Abstract conceptualisation and
Active experimentation. This is an cycle which helps in in develop new capabilities in workforce
through following various learning styles in practice (Barnett and Morse, 2013). Learning style
can be described as the services of actions or activities that helping in developing new
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knowledge and gaining new experiences and capabilities in relation to increase performance
efficiency in workplace. Kolbs model is based on defining various activities to the different
learning style. These activities describes an cycle which is defined below. Concrete experience- This is the process of gaining experience through training and
development or reinventing the existing experiences. Life gives thousand of opportunity
to an individual to experiences new things at place of home or work to kick start the
learning process. Reflective observation- This involves reflection of experiences gained an developing an
understanding in relation to the new experience. Person always review the gained
experiences and record his learning deliberately. Abstract Conceptualisation- This process involves developing newer concept related to
the interpreted experiences or behaviour. This can be conceptualised by interpreting the
influence of experience in daily working and learning process of individual.
 Active experimentation- In this the developed concept is implemented in particle working
environment in order to identify consequences of new developed concept in practise
through gained experience (Beaglehole and et. al., 2011). This stage involves testing the
developed concepts gained through new experiences by individual.
The various learning styles that are followed by an participant during attending training
and development programme as defined by the Kolbs model and its cyclic development of newer
competencies are described below.
Diverging learning style (feeling and watching): The person following this type of
learning style are sensitive in nature and believe in feeling and observation the things. The main
activities carried out by the person in this learning styles are gaining concrete experience and
reflective observations. These people are having capability of imagination and solve problems
through discussing. This is called diverging because people use diver thinking in order ton
resolving issues through brainstorming activities.
Assimilating learning style (Watching and thinking): The person follows an way to
conceptualise the things and brings and logical approach in functioning. For this kind of learner
more focus is on developing new ideas and concept to deal with particular problem. The person
is dependent in the logical knowledge as compared to the practical experimentation the concepts.
The person follows the reflective observation activities in order to develop new concepts through
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involving himself in Abstracting concepts through learning and development plans (Blume and
et. al., 2010). The person is capable in inductive reasoning and involved in developing new
theories. The person follows and scientific approach while learning.
Converging learning style (doing and thinking): The person is an implementer. The
person develop an concept which he later on implement in practice to learn about the
consequences of concept. Individual follows Abstracting concepts and experimenting them in
practice through involved in Active experimentation of new developed ideas. Person is having
good capability in practising the concept in physical works and apply theories in practice
efficiently.
Accommodating learners style (doing and feeling): Kolbs defined this learning style as
accommodating as the person accommodate the knowledge from others and than analyse the
situation according to their own experimentation and analysis. The person is an practical
implementer and develop new experiences for reinvent existing knowledge through
experimentation (Crawford, LePine and Rich 2010). The person carries out an Active
experimental and engaged in developing new experiences through engaging himself in
development of concrete experience during training and development plans. The individual is
having good experience as well as good in practical experimentation.
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1.2 Function of learning curve.
The learning curve defines the growth of experiences and gaining of knowledge within
in specified defined time period. This is an graphical representation of gaining experience with
time. The steeper graph of learning curve defines that person is having capability of multi-
tasking and gain experience with faster rate. The person is able to adopt new competencies in
patricide in short time period.
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Source 1: David Kolb on learning styles. 2017

Implementation of learnings in practice is utmost responsibility of an employer so that
they can contribute in success of organisation efficiently. The functions of implementation of
learnings and skills in practice are as follow:
Add value: The experienced person adds value in the profitability of the firm through
gaining newer capabilities in behaviour (Demil and Lecocq, 2010). The employee develop new
capabilities in actions which enhance the performance of workforce which helps in delivering
good quality services to the customers.
Proper utilization of fund: Experimenting the learnings in practice by employee results
in effective utilisation of funding that are invested in the training and development programme
by the employer.
Face and overcome challenges: The employee of sun count company is able to face new
challenges and make an effective decisions independently after participation in development
programme of firm. This helps in increasing efficiency of employees and contributes in efficient
services to the old age person of sun count homes.
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Source 2: Let’s Not Forget the Forgetting Curve. 2017

1.3 Contribution of learning theories in organising an learning event.
The different theories helps in identifying various needs of learning event while
developing an plan for development of new skills in workforce. The various theories according
to the learning style of an learner is explained as follows:
Kolbs learning cycle- This defines cycle of various activities that helps in enhancing the
Concrete experience through interpreting the existing and new the experiences by Reflective
observation and Abstract a new Concept and implement as an Active experimentation to analyse
the consequences of developed theories in practical world (Ellison and Boyd, 2013).
Cognitive theory- This theory develop new learning capabilities and techniques
according to the need of an employee or workforce working in the environment. Through
analysing the competencies of person and his nature of working in environment the new learning
styles are developed by the employer.
Reinforcement theory- This is the theory which us developed according to the learning
capability of person in previous training and development programme the reinforcement can be
positive of it motivate the individual through analysing the performance of person in previous
event.
Sensory stimulation theory- This theory explains the that stimulation of all the senses is
important for the effective learning in working environment through enhancing stress level and
change in tone also affects the performance of employee to large extent.
Holistic theory- This theory describes that all aspects of human nature like emotion,
motivation, interest and intention to perform task of an person affects the learning efficiency of
individual in workplace to large extent.
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Source 3: Child & Young Person Development. 2017
4.1 Role of government in learning and development.
There is a vital role of government in development, training programmes and life long
learning as well. Government is increasing the value of training and development because they
reduce the complexities of employability. Government helps and support many programmes and
even organise it self training oriented programmes because if the employees keep learning then
they will do their work in a efficient manner and then it will increase revenue of an organisation.
Ultimately it will develop the growth of the nation's economy. It is always observed that
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education and training is being the most important agenda of any political party and to achieve it,
they provide assistance to business organisations for training purposes.
Government makes investment in education and development programmes of employees
of any company. They provide grant and subsidies to all business entities who are really
performing well and can be helpful for contributing to economy (Redclift, 2010). A proper
training to employees and new entries in business is very necessary and an organisation should
hold many different policies and activities for the enhancement of skills in the recruited
employees. for the said matter government makes many policies regarding life learning of
workers so that they can groom themselves and contribute in achieving the goals and objectives
of the organisation. Government has published a Green paper also consisting of life learning.
Political parties also themselves organise many training and development programmes to
enhance working skills of workers. It is great that someone's life is being encouraged by the
continuous investment by government to maintain their life long learning.
Government helps unemployed portion of young generation to understand the aspects of
business economy and then provide them training so that they can be used as great human
resource to increase the employment rate of country. Government makes many policies and
conduct free of cost programmes for training of unemployed people and help them to raise their
standards of living.
Political parties conducts such development programmes that help in aware people of
country regarding new technologies introduced and make them familiar with such new
techniques so that they can use them in efficient manner and It will be then helpful to achieving
the goals of organisation as well as society (Shander and et. al., 2010). Hence
government plays a very important role in development of an employee's skill and make
healthier and competitive environment. It helps in overall economy growth and beneficial to the
nation as well.
It is the role of European Work Commission to create more opportunities for people and
they also ensure that fundamentals rights of the employees are maintained. They regularly brings
new policies and frameworks to make sure that countries which are part of the EU have skilled
labour.
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4.2 Impact of development of competencies on private and public sector.
Competency is another name of skills by which a person performs their work so it is
essential for any person which are working an organisation to complete their work in a better
way. Competency movement has impacted on the UK organisations in a huge manner,
competency movement term is used for the movement of skills and traits to in specific skills.
Many of the organisation of the UK has used this competency movement in their organisation.
Private and public sector has effected because most of the organisations are using old
competency concept in which they are having their focus on their traditional and now they are
having their focus on the contemporary competency by which they can be more effective against
their goals and targets (Ungar, 2011). Mainly public sector has a got a huge impact of this
because they are having a huge need to deliver an appropriate services in public domain. Most of
the economist said that increase in competency standards has make a positive impact on the
outcome and deliveries of services in public area. This increases competition in between the
public sector and in private industry by which both sector are having their focus to increase their
effectiveness to each other. For example, there are some organisations in UK which are still
using the same management structure and in which they are not interested in taking the views
and feedbacks of lower level employees. This way they are they are finding it difficult to retain
their potential employees.
4.3 Contribution of Contemporary training programme of UK government.
As it is found that the contemporary training initiatives that is being introduced by the
government of united kingdom plays a vital role in the development of human resource in
context of Sun Court Ltd. Due to this training, the human resource development can be achieved.
Given below are the basic contribution of contemporary training initiatives on the H.R
development.
It is helpful in increasing the individual as well as organisational effectiveness- With the
help of training programs that is being introduced by the U.K government, it is found that
individual who are working at some place able to improve their performance level. The overall
effectiveness in the context of both individual as well organisation can be achieved. Human
resource can work in such a way that the company will be able to achieve its target. If individual
working with some organisation are fully trained that means all the work performed by them will
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be up to the mark and hence effectiveness of work can be increased (Welter and et. al.,
2013).
It helps the people to develop core competencies in order to perform any task- In
reference to the contemporary training initiative, it can be very well estimated that the core
competencies within human resource can be increased and thus this will be helpful human
resource development.
On the basis of above factors, it can be concluded that UK government have introduced
best training initiative which is directly helpful in monitoring and directing human resource. In
short, human resource development will be there. Centre for advanced training is the
preprogramme initiated by the UK government to provide training about skills, music, dance and
capabilities.
TASK 2
2.1 Training needs of staff at various level in hierarchy.
The training needs in the workplace can be identified through analysing the current
performance of employee in working environment (Escobar, 2011). The current performance of
the employee and the defined standards of the employee performance by the higher authority in
organisation. The needs of training and development at different level are as follows:
Top level management- These are the higher authority of the organisation who are
engaged in decision making process for the firm. Top level management are involved in
unstructured decision process for the organisation profitability. These are the directors of
company and allocate the resources effectively in lower peoples. So, the training required by
these person in the business entity is expertise knowledge and increased conceptualisation to
make an profitable decisions for firm. The top level managements can be given training for
developing newer competencies to handle problems more efficiently which involves
participating in seminars, conferences, workshops etc.
Middle level management- The middle level people are involved in decision making
which are semi structured in nature. This type of decision helps in developing motivational
leadership style in behaviour and assigning the task to team (Ghosh, Shuck and Petrosko, 2012).
So, the training required by this class if employee in business is development of management and
dealership competencies like efficiency in fellowship by gaining good communication skills in
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training programme. The middle line people can develop various training techniques like team
building exercises to work effectively for organisation goals.
Lower level management- These are the worker class of organisation which follows the
directions of the leaders in business entity. These should be provided with various skills
development and training in workplace and also given instructional training about the machinery
and adopting safety measures in workplaces. Front line staff can be trained by providing hand on
to improve their knowledge and working practices.
2.2 Advantage and disadvantage of training techniques.
Training helps in increasing the skills, knowledge and capabilities of employees. Training is
related to improving the single skills. It is the responsibility of a manager is to provide the
training top its employees or staff. It will helps in increasing the motivation and improvement in
the work performance. There are two types of training that are on job and off the job training
method (Yip and et. al., 2012). The Human Resource manager design and implement the
training programme.
This company provides the training to its employees for enhancing their skills. In on the
job training, manager gives the training to its employees under his/ her observation. This training
is under the company. In this methods includes coaching, mentoring, job instructional technique
etc. There are some advantages of this methods:
 It is less costly- It is because there is no use of the more resources as the company already
have those resources.
 Helps in immediate growth- As the employees are well aware about their organisational
manager so they can easily understand what they want to convey.
 In this every employee know each other.
Disadvantages:
 Training quality is not high- As the manager or the instructor does not posses much skills
and knowledge of various techniques.
 Biassness can be created- In this they can give preference to their favourite employee and
the rest can be denied.
Off the job training is the second method and in this, training is provided outside the
company or by hiring the trainer from outside the firm. There are some advantages and some
disadvantages of this:
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Advantages:
 No partially with any employee- As the trainer is not aware about each employee
so he will be giving equal preference.
 Systemically organised- It is a long process so a system is set thus giving more
productivity.
Disadvantages:
 It is more costly and time taking- There are lots of money invested in this as they
use professional services.
 It is artificial in nature
Hand on training provides safe learning and also accelerates the learning experiences.
This type of training increases the level of participant engagement. But this particular training
methods is having disadvantage that this does not focus on details and complex problems can not
be expresses by hand on like complex algebra etc.
Team building activities enhance the self experience and improves relation with team
members. While various cons to such activities are like it is an time out work and last of small
time periods and also this incurs higher cost.
2.3 Systematic approach to training and development event.
The systematic approach of training is very effective and beneficial to company. It is a
type of formal training which is designed to starting training programme. This business firm
prepares a plan for the training event:
Objectives of this business firm- The main objective of this business enterprise is to act
upon the market with the helps of creativity and the cost reducing. To achieve the objective of
firm, it is necessary to make the effective products.
Setting the needs of training- The firms identify there production workers and the
agents of marketers should be more effective. If this is not achieved than organisation will not be
able to achieve their main objectives (Werner and DeSimone, 2011). Thus the top
managers had decided to organise two different type of training events for this department.
Designing Training Strategy: The firm had designed demonstrative training for there
employees. The manufacturing department of this company know that how to run the
manufacturing in an effective way.
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Implementing the training programme- After all this process, there is a need of
implementing the programme related to the training and it is the responsibility of a manager to
implement it.
3.1 Evaluation plan of training and development event.
It is essential to identify and determine actual working performance
and working capabilities of employees. Training and development activities
are helps to enhance working skills of existing works and development of
cited company. Before conducting training programmes fro employees
should be know by organisation what is evaluation, what should be
evaluated, how will be evaluate as well as how will be gather information
and review of training. For the cited company must be understand
evaluation of performance then collect the information related to the
performance and training programmes as well as outcomes (Griggs and et.
al., 2013). All these stages are the parts of training procedure which helps
to enhance working capabilities and assists to take corrective decision
regarding any critical situation. Moreover, evaluation process is one of the
major advantages for cited company. There can be use five tiered approach
as an evaluation framework. It includes mainly five stages which all are
stated under following:
 Need Assessment: In this stage clarify major purpose and objectives
of the program. The actual needs should be identify and program
should be meet that needs.
 Monitoring and accountability: It refers to set all activities and
stages as per their priorities so employees will effectively complete
their task and provide better training to their employees regarding
their work.
 Program clarification: After monitoring all activities then should be clarify all
programmes to their employers so they can provides better training to workers as per
their requirements (Gwynne and Cristobal, 2014).
 Program: In this step measured all participates in effective manner as well as their major
requirements of training and development programmes.
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 Program impact: This is one of the last stage of cited farm work, in which identify
major outcomes and feedback of training and development program.
3.2 Evaluating the event.
After conducting training and development programmes for employees, which helps in
developing and enhancing workers capabilities. Evaluation is an decision making method as per
that employers will be able to take corrective decision regarding any situation and employees as
well. Cited company through conducted training and development program for workers that
helps to enhance their working capabilities and skills. In the evaluation programmes has
concluded four stages which helps to identify actual needs of training and development program
in cited organisation. In the first stage, determine training needs and how much employees which
requires to provide training to them (Joseph and Newman, 2010). After knowing needs or
requirements as per that should be develop effective planning and designing. And in the final
stage company's employers will be implement evaluation program in action.
Evaluation program helps to provide actual and reliable information related to the
training and how much skills and performance were increased of employees as well as assist to
take corrective decision regarding any critical situation of company and employees performance.
If employees much more require training for improving performance then company again will
effectively take action to conduct training for them. Along with this, evaluation is an method
which helps to identify actual working capabilities and skills of employees. Employees working
performance play very eminent role in developing business firm and earn high number of profit.
That's why it is important to take corrective and suitable action as well as on time should be
properly analyse and evaluate working capabilities and involvements of workers (Monden,
2011). Training and development program should be based on planning and designing because
which helps to manage all activities and operations in effective manner. Then employers of the
firm will also able to provide better training and effective enhance learning power and
capabilities as per company's needs.
The various techniques like survey by developing questionnaire and calculating ROI of
the process helps in evaluating the effectiveness of training programme and learnings gained
from the development programme.
Questionnaire
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1. Are you happy with the working environment?
 Yes
 No
2. In what areas do you feel that you need more knowledge?
3. How much you will rate the organisational structure out of 10.
4. What things in the company makes you positive?
5. Any personal suggestions regarding any issue.
3.3 Success of evaluation approaches.
In this stage, cited company should be know about how to gather information and data
with the help of different methods and techniques. There will be defining different methods and
techniques of data collection which all are stated under following under:
 Interview
 Questionnaires
 Direct observation
 Written tests
 Performance tests
 Performance data
 Training audit
Questionnaires is one of the best and suitable data collection method for cited company,
it includes some structured and unstructured questions. During the conduct survey in internal
place of organisation employees of the firm can ask these questions to their employees or
participates. So they can give appropriate answer and share their experience in effective manner.
As per that company will take corrective action regarding their training and development
program. It is very important to properly analyse and evaluate working performance of
employees and their working style (Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell, 2013). Because it is
not easy to improve working capabilities and skills of their workers that's why should be
properly analyse and evaluate them then should be take corrective and appropriate action
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regarding them. This is required for identify major problems and issues of workers for
employees, that's why should be develop healthy and friendly environment in organisation so
employees can effectively share any kind of information with their employers. Then employment
can take corrective action to resolve any problems. Training and development programmes play
important role in organisation which helps to enhance working skills and performance of
employees because all companies wants to meet worker's performance with their decided
standards (Phillips and Phillips, 2016). That's why it is important to properly analyse and
evaluate actual working performance of workers before provided training as well as after
training. Because as per the evaluation employees will take corrective action regrading them.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that, in present scenario almost all companies
are engaged in planning various training and development plans that helps in increasing
profitability of firm in many folds. There is having great importance of implementing the
learning in practice. This will helps in increasing efficiency of the employee working performing
any specified task through using new developed skills. Training and development also helps in
gaining various growth opportunity in business environment. This also helps in planning for
career development and achieving various responsible positions in the corporate sector.
Government has large contribution in motivating the training and development programme in
commercial environment. Training needs are dependent on the learning style of individual and
purposes of development needs at various level in organisation are also different. Close
monitoring and evaluation is also necessary for success of training and development plan in
order to achieve more return on investment in these events through development of new skills
and enhancing capabilities of workforce in organisation.
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David Kolb on learning styles. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.leopard-
learning.com/kolb.html>. [Accessed on 25th July 2017].
Let’s Not Forget the Forgetting Curve. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://mindprintlearning.com/blog/the-forgetting-curve/>. [Accessed on 25th July
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Child & Young Person Development. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://slideplayer.com/slide/9982791/>. [Accessed on 25th July 2017].
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