The Effect of Specific Training and Skill Formation on Teaching in the UK Lifelong Learning Sector: A Case Study

Abstract

The primary objective in this study is to describe the in-firm specific training and skill formation and their effects on productivity at Swarthmore Education Centre in the United Kingdom. Data gathered from the centre during a tenyear period beginning in 2003, and the responses of employees and the managers to questionnaires and interviews, were analysed on the basis of the theoretical framework of Koike and Inoki (1990). The findings show that the intellectual skills gained through on-the-job training (OJT) acquired by the subject employee was recognised as an incentive by the centre to retain her while her substitution was seen as providing other staff members requiring OJT with an opportunity to acquire new skills. While the programme manager was involved in the specific training in which the centre invested, the specific skills were generalised within the workplace to maintain upward productivity, and hence the team won additional contracts for its educational programme funded by the local government.