Improving Learning Transfer ― A Guide to Getting More Out of What You Put into Your Training

In today's constantly changing business environment, capable people are crucial to an organization's success, and developing their capabilities through training, learning and development initiatives is a major investment. While measuring the return on that investment is important, attempts to do so are much less valuable if they are not accompanied by a clear understanding of all of the factors than can affect the application of new skills and knowledge on the job - in other words, a clear understanding of what affects learning transfer. So, if organisations are to remain competitive, and develop the highly skilled people that will contribute to their future performance, improving learning transfer should be a priority. Cyril Kirwan's book addresses this critical issue at a number of levels. Firstly, it explores what learning transfer actually is (it's about application of learning back at work, as well as maintenance of that learning over time). Secondly, it describes the main factors that affect transfer, in terms of trainee characteristics, training design factors, and work environment characteristics. It also examines how those factors exert their effect, which ones are more important, how they interact with one another, and in doing so constructs a practical learning transfer model for practitioners. The book also describes in some detail what the various factors working for or against learning transfer look like in practice. Finally, using case studies, it points the way towards what can be done before, during and after training to improve the rate of transfer. This highly practical book will help trainers, development specialists and line managers ensure that their training is about real outcomes and not just inputs.

Dr Cyril Kirwan is an experienced management and organisation development consultant. Before setting up Cyril Kirwan & Associates in 1996 he worked for many years in the airline and financial services sectors. He now designs and delivers interventions in areas such as management development, leadership and change management, learning and coaching for clients in a variety of industries in both private and public sectors. He holds a M.Sc. in Work and Organisational Psychology from Dublin City University, and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Henley Business School. He is a certified management consultant (CMC), a member of the Irish Institute of Training and Development (MIITD), a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development (CFIPD) and a Visiting Academic Fellow at Henley Business School.