Sample Research Paper On Relationship Between Career Development And Training

Introduction

A successful career is one of the greatest landmarks of a life well lived. The word career refers to the sequence and nature of activities that a person participates in during their lifetime that make up their job profile. A career is not a onetime stint but a lifelong outline of the professional engagements in one’s life, whether paid or otherwise. A career comprises of life roles, leisure activities, education and jobs. Elaborate career development charts the way to a successful career. Career development is the process of organization and management of the elements that make up a career over the lifetime of an individual. Career development sequentially synchronizes the life, learning and working of an individual during his or her lifetime. This paper demonstrates the relationship between training and career development. It describes the role of training in career development. Relevant and consistent training facilitates successful career development.

Background

The term career development is a complex term and therefore there are varied explanations and understandings for the term. However, there is consensus among majority of the authors in the human resource discipline that career development is a lifelong process. Career development is a lifetime progression that involves advancement from childhood, through education to adulthood working and the final retirement. According to Patton and McMahon, career development is the progression of organizing the life, learning and work over the life of an individual. This approach to career development demarcates the process into distinct stages spreading over the lifetime of an individual. According to Super, these stages are growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance and decline. Many human resource professionals approach the distribution of these stages to career development in different ways.
Some professionals treat the stages that make up career development as transitions through the life of the individual. They are of the view that the transition from one stage is a neat process and it ushers one to the next stage. They opine that the stages have an order from the first stage to the last. In other words, the pattern of these stages is such that that growth is closer to the childhood of the individual while decline is closer to the retirement. During the life of an individual, one is required to make rational decisions in each stage. Each stage has different dynamics from the next one but the decisions made in the previous stage affect the progress and success in the successive stages. This traditional approach is not popular because it addresses the career progression as a linear and predictable process.
Another group of professionals strongly believes that while career development comprises of the five steps described by Super, the pattern is such that various instances of the repetition of the stages occur in the lifetime of an individual. This is the most popular and modern approach because it adequately addresses the situation of multiple jobs over the career of an individual. In addition, it carries the spirit of career development in human resource, which involves enhancing the productivity of a human resource within an enterprise. When the performance of an employee declines, the employment of measures such as training may take the career progression of the individual through a growth stage. This way an individual can experience multiple cycles of the five stages in their lifetime.
During the career development of an individual, an individual must engage in various tasks for progression. These tasks are unique to each stage in the development of the career profile. They include self-information, nurturing decision-making ability, furnishing oneself with the appropriate career information and strategic planning of the career. All these ensure that the individuals place themselves in a strategic position that will enhance their productivity during the respective stage in career development. These tasks also work towards maximizing the potential of the workers. With this insight, it is apparent that the evaluation career development is not along the lines of chronological age but along the learning process.
Career development is one of the important components highlighted in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In one’s life, self-actualization is the highest level in the pyramid. In the same way, in ones career, career development drives the attainment of the highest point on the career pyramid. It is therefore essential to keep oneself up to date with the career requirements in order to remain relevant. In addition, the progression to a higher position in the career ladder rests on the competitive advantage of the employee.
In addition to relevant interests and personal attributes, one needs to prove that they have the mandate to progress to the next level in the career. The relevant knowledge in the respective career is the mostly used determinant of the ability of an individual to perform in a job. The more the knowledge an individual possesses, the greater the worth of the individual to an enterprise. Training and experience are the main sources of knowledge. It therefore follows that these two are important components of career development.

Training and career development

Training is the acquisition of skills and expertise through a formal process that involves furnishing one with skills, knowledge and concepts in the respective discipline relevant to ones career. Training also involves the enhancement of the performance of an employee through a process that involves attitude change and behavior remodeling to be n line with the expectations of the job market and the career goals of an individual. During career development, there are two types of training. The first type of training is off job training.
Off-job training refers to the acquisition of skills in a forum that the organization he or she works for is not involved. This includes the relevant career education in school and college and the additional training during the working history of an employee provided the employee does not receive the knowledge or skills from the place of work. The advantage of of-job training is that it avoids the distractions at the workplace and it stands to be more efficient because dedicated and experienced trainers facilitate it. On-job training, on the other hand is the process through which an employee gains skills while performing the daily tasks involved in their job. Working experience and apprenticeship are some of the forms of on-job training. The advantages of this form of training are hat it is usually cheap, time saving and relevant to the job.
One of the main challenges in the work environment today is staying up to date. This is because, with the current age of information technology, the demands of the jobs are dynamic and they change rapidly. The employees’ knowledge base also has to change in tandem with the changes in the job environment to ensure that their output remains optimum. The human resource department in firms cannot afford to keep replacing workers as new developments arise, as this would not only be expensive but also unpractical. Training is the solution to this challenge. Through progressive training throughout career development, the employees remain relevant in changing times. This shows that training is an essential aspect of career development.

Training endows one with relevant skills

The first role of training in career development is to equip the worker with the relevant knowledge with regard to their job of interest in their career. As mentioned earlier, training is a progressive activity in the 21st century. It is essential that before an employee joins a company, they become acquainted with the needed skills. These skills are received from the training in the academic institutions. Different industries require different skills. The training sought by an individual depends on the career plan component in their career development. Early in the training process, the coverage of the skills acquired is general. The education system exposes the learners to a wide variety of elements of knowledge and basic skills. However, as the training progresses, the learner identifies their preferred career path and he or she specializes in training relevant to that career path. This ensures that they have a knowledge base relevant to their career.

Training increases employability

The second role of training in career development is to improve the personal attributes of the employees to be in line with the expectations of their career and in this way; it increases the employability of the employee. While personal attributes are part of the personality of an individual, they need polishing through active training on the desired conduct at the place of work. It is of no use when an employee has all the relevant academic qualifications but they lack the right interpersonal skills for the corporate world. For instance, training on public presentation helps the employees to reduce the anxiety produced by the fear of large groups of people. Training does this by reinforcing the confidence of the workers. Confident employees are at a better place to perform best because they can concentrate on the job at hand.
The workplace is a diverse environment comprising of people from various backgrounds with different attributes. Therefore, there is the need for a standard code of conduct to establish a business culture and a favorable environment for productivity. Training helps in achieving this. It builds the individual by enhancing the broader set of skills that enable him or her to interact effectively with different types of people. These skills include critical thinking, organizing, management and decision-making. These skills are applicable to a wide range of situations in the working environment. This is beneficial to career development since it builds the person as a complete asset for the corporate world and this increases their employability.

Training creates chances for promotion

The third link between training and career development is that it opens up a chance for promotion in the career. Promotion is the act of moving upwards from one rank to another in the career. Promotion is an important indicator of progression in career development. Higher positions in companies demand more expertise and skills. Training provides the employee with additional skills and professional qualifications. These place the employee at the best position to assume higher management duties. The trained employees are therefore the most eligible candidates for promotions.
Promotion in the career is an indicator of career development. A 2013 survey of the hotel industry in the hospitality sector in Lahore Pakistan established that, the chances of a promotion increased with training. Of the respondents interviewed, more than 75% were of the view that their training was the reason why they got a promotion. Research demonstrates that lower jobs in the hierarchy are less demanding on the skills of an individual, while higher jobs in the hierarchy are more demanding. Therefore, upward development is an indicator of career growth and the ability to perform more demanding and complex tasks. It follows that training helps the individual to progress in the career hierarchy and in this way: it facilitates career development.

Training enables an employee to make a longtime commitment with a company

The final link between training and career development is that it enables the employee to make a longtime commitment with the company. Studies show that increased progression during the career of an employee make the employee more willing to remain in the company. A survey on the role of training on career development in the hotel industry in Lahore Pakistan established that the employees who had access to training at their workplaces had no intentions to leave the company. However, stagnation and lack of personal growth lead to increased desire by the employee to leave the company and seek a career opportunity that promises personal growth. As demonstrated above, training is a great contributor to personal growth because it furnishes the individual with current skills and ensures that they are up to date.
During career development, the quality years of hands on experience in the respective career models the profile of an employee. On the other hand, companies desire to retain employees because this is cost effective and it maximizes the output of the business. The congruence of these two makes a longtime commitment to the company a desirable thing for both parties. The employee’s career development benefits by acquiring quality years of experience while the company saves a lot of money in training new employees by developing the retained employees. A study conducted on Vodafone Ghana examining the effect of employee training to career development established that training of employees had a direct impact on the career development of the employee.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that training is an important contributor to career development. Training endows the employee with skills and expertise needed to progress and grow in the career and hence facilitating career development. It also increases the employability of the employee by building the positive personal attributes of the employee and in this way, contributing to career development. In addition to this, training opens up chances for promotions by polishing the skills possessed b the employee and this is a positive step for the career development. Finally, training enables the employee to make a longtime commitment with the company and this facilitates career development. Therefore, all employers should provide an environment that facilitates training of the employees to enable them to grow in their career and this helps in career development. The employees should also take initiative and seek training opportunities so that they can progress in their career development.

References

Ameeq-ul-Ameeq, F. H. (2013). Impact of Training on Employee’s Development and Performance in Hotel Industry of Lahore, Pakistan. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly , 68-82.
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Kwenin, D. O. (2013). Relationship between work environment, career development opportunities and employee retention in vodafone ghana limited. Global Journal of Human Resource Management , 1-9.
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Super, D. E. (1957). The psychology of careers: An introduction to vocational development. New York:. New York: Harper & Row.