Training and Development

Culture Induction Programme

Introduction
To create a training programme certain basic steps are involved. The Goad 5-stage model is one simple technique that ensures no essential element is missed out. First, the current situation is analysed so that the training requirements can be defined. From these we can decide which approach to take; the approach clearly depends on the requirements and on the personnel concerned. These subsequently delimit the environment in which the training programme will take place and the materials used. Following the lesson(s) the teacher and the participants will review the manner used to see whether the goal was attained and note any changes that need to be made for a future occasion. I shall attempt to follow Goad 's five stages.

Analysis in the determination of training/ development requirements We shall first study our subject company 's vision and mission and identify items which appear to fall short of its specifications. Some form of discussion or training will be needed to present these as well as methods suggested to remedy the faults. The recognised deficiencies will pinpoint at what level of the manager/employee hierarchy remedial action is needed. This, in turn, will determine the techniques and forms of the required training. The objective of teaching is to pass on information. What needs to be taught in this situation, and to whom?

As my example I shall take the Glion Institute of Higher Education, identify certain apparent problems and try to suggest some palliative measures. What does GIHE set out to be (we shall assume this is a given and not to be changed)? What does it want to achieve, what are its objectives? Does it meet its own requirements?

Glion Institute of Higher Education (date?: “About Glion our mission and values”) states that “Glion Institute of Higher Education offers management-focused programmes for the hospitality and other service industries". It is therefore selling knowledge-based training to customers. To what degree does it consider the requirements of these student customers and employers of its graduates?

Part of Glion’s mission tells us that the school has a “multi-national student body and to mentor students” (ibid). For newly arrival students, especially those who come abroad for the first time, a booklet of campus guide alone cannot ease their culture shock. If we took student point of view, though the main reason for them to come is study, they will live or even try to fit in the local culture during their stay. Accordingly, problem-centred analysis, defined as an approach “focused on particular or specific areas of the job which job-holders themselves and /or their managers find problematic.” (Harrison,1997; Reid and Barrington,1997: 157) In this case, students, as the learner aware the fact that the they need to know things like how to use public transport, the location of major shops, banks as well as the rules of riding a bike on the street etc to assimilate in the society quickly. Besides, the usage of storage space in the cellar also needs to be explained as not all of the countries have the similar thing. Not to mention the emergency service and fire alarm systems. “To mentor our students” stated in the Glion’s mission in this case is not done enough.

Project powerpoint presentation that needs to be done with English-menued Windows Office systems can also be an issue if the student is not familiar with using these tools even in their native language. Therefore, a course in brushing up students’ skills in using such system at the beginning can save students a lot of time for the rest of the term once they know the way to use these tools. Regarding to on-line course, one could ask what is the point of transporting students to Switzerland so that they can do a self-study course sitting in front of an internet-connected PC. They can do that at home. Self-study courses should only be given as additional ones, and they require at least a short introduction by a real person, the "mentor" described in GIHE 's vision. Also, if assignments are to be handed in as computer documents, then the assignment itself could also be given as a computer file. It should be unambiguous, concise, precise and complete – and to have it passed through the spell-checker would not be superfluous.

We could perhaps mention that our supposedly English-speaking students are living in a French-speaking rural town. Cleaning staff, who are encountered quite frequently, probably don 't speak English but there is a need to communicate with them. Is any help given to profit from this "European outlook"? To mentor our students", as specified in GIHE 's vision, shows a definite shortfall.

But what on earth does "Swiss in its work ethos" mean? What distinctive characteristics and guiding beliefs do the Swiss have? Don 't all managers world-wide try to do their job in a professional manner, work towards the goals of their company and provide the service their customers ask for? Are these words just hot air, blown up to sound as fine as "reflective practitioner"? "Swissitude" is usually imagined as being precise, clear and unambiguous, thoughtful as opposed to the hazy blur of "it 's all done by mirrors".

Design the training/developmental approaches
Taking the points outlined above together with others, who is responsible for them, who needs training and in what form? In all cases the objectives of every component in a programme will be precisely defined (and given in its introduction).

Let us try to give a presentation sequence to our points while at the same time defining who is concerned and the form in which the needed information should be given.

“The customer may need to be “trained” to assume a new, and perhaps more independent, role as an active participant in the service process.”(Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2008:78) Therefore, in order to improve service offered at GIHE, I propose to organize a cultural induction programme for new international students who are also new to the country. In this case, culture is a system that has been passing on in the form of symbols, meaning as well as custom from the past to present. (Collier and Thomas, 1988; Geertz, 1983; Schneider, 1976)

Title of the programme:
Cultural induction
Faculty concerned:
Students’ affairs, academic managers
Purpose of this programme:
1. To help international students who arrive in Switzerland for the first time and it is also the first time away from their mother country to get settled.
2. To establish bonds among new students in different programmes and learn from each other trough group activities.
3. To help them to understand the meaning of Swiss ethos advertised in the school mission.

Duration of the programme
Depending on students’ participation and interests they show, it can last from one week up to one month.
Trainer
1. Students on campus who have been in Switzerland more than 2 years. (They can either be native French or some other international students)
2. Students’ affairs and academic faculty
Content of the programme:
1. Orientation in living in the Switzerland. a. The meaning of different signs at railway station, how to get a ticket from a ticket machine, different types of travel card) b. Traffic rules: such as how to ride a bike on the street. c. Location of the major markets, banks, fitness centre, pharmacy, clinics, travel agents. d. Survival French e. Different customs in German, Italian, Romanish speaking parts of Switzerland.
2. Academic assistance (induction)
a. Office tools
b. Introduction of how Glion is functioned
Training approaches:
1.“Information search”-according to Piskurich (2000), this is an approach that the trainer will encourage participants to find out what they need to know instead of the traditional way of trainer lecturing type of teaching. (used in the orientation of living parts point a.b.c)
2. “Role play” (ibid)
3. Excursion to German, Italian, Romanish speaking areas.

Develop learning processes and materials
In many cases PowerPoint presentations, dealing with one point at a time, will be very useful. But to avoid yet another dreary "sit down and listen" lecture, question and answer
Sheets could be handed out and discussed. In some cases group play-acting could be devised; "show us how your group would handle this situation".

1. Excursions to different parts of the country not only provide students opportunities to interact with others in the different programme but also enable them to learn Swiss traditions through group activities. By doing so, they are able to appreciate differences in doing things between here and their cultural of origin. However, maps of Switzerland will be hand out for those participate in this activity. Apart from that, a small induction in how to read a map need to be carried out before students’ set off.

2. As for the IT usage problem regarding to office tools or on-line courses, lessons showing students show how to use video-conferencing to give them chances to talk with the professor of the specific course and make sure everyone clear about what they are supposed to achieve before any lessons being arranged.

3. According to Piskurich et al. (2000:44) “People learn by doing, not by being told”. In the case of survival French, as the title suggests, the purpose of having this kind of French classes to non-French speaking international students to communicate with local people so that they will settle down in the environment faster. Therefore, activities such as how to communicate with cleaning staff if one would like them to do the room later can be organized.

Implement the training/development experience, event, process and programme
According to Stewart (1999), before implementing any training activity, resource and preparation need to be considered. Rather than a fanciful "training experience" a simple unadorned lesson will be given. Lucid simple language will be used – the objective of this, as any other lesson, is to pass on knowledge – so the lesson 's content can be most easily assimilated. In the programme level, a general survey will be conducted to identify whether the needs among students coincide with the objectives of this programme. If the results returns positive , the programme will be bring up to the students’ government or the programme leader to get support from the administration level so it can be further put forward into higher level to have the support from the schools. In terms of the classes, activities will be conducted as follows:

1. As for students’ excursion activities, resource as well as preparation cannot be made without sufficient fund. It is best that a development activity will have sufficient financial support before it is being carried out. (Roscoe, 1995). In this case, students’ motivation alone will not lead us any further. To make this happen, support from the school administration as well need to be sorted out. Apart from that, as the goal of this activity is to help students to know the various customs in different parts of Switzerland, the leader (trainer) will, before everyone set out to their destinations, separate students into different groups and assign them a task with clear instructions and deadline to finish. Meanwhile, he or she will make sure that every member in every group all has their own role to play to accomplish the group task. It is by so doing that every participant will share their own experience and then learn from one another during the process. At the end of programme, the trainer might as well require all participants to produce an oral or perhaps a written report about what they have learnt in the whole process including what they can put into practice in their future studies. (Piskurich et al., 2000).

2. IT brush course as one of the highly operational course. It will be easier if the teacher on the first class assigns students a project on the class and doing the project with the students within the time limit. After that, let the students compare the difference in the quality of their work and then shows the trainers’ work. By doing so, the trainer will have a better idea about what he or she need to prepare for the rest of the course.

3. French class- As a trainer, we all know that it is no good that students do not like the class material that we put a lot of effort on. To avoid this to happen, instead of preparing something we think it’s right or good for students’ future development by ourselves; it’s advisable to invite students’ to take part in the class organization processes. Activities such as let students write down what they would like to learn and post it on a board you reserve for them can be organized. To avoid students’ rejection in participating in the role play, we might as well as inform the actors/actress of the skit and give them a transcript to prepare beforehand. And also let the rest of the class give their comments on the actors/actresses’ performance in the class. (ibid)

.
Evaluate the training/development event for revision
When design the training approaches; it is advisable to use the set objectives as our rules to map out the plan. However, at the same time, according to Steward (1999:12) ‘radical humanist, who assumes reality is socially and subjectively created and is therefore not capable of objective analysis. At the same time, viewing social institutions as negative in the sense of constraining and controlling human thought, action and potential.’ From what I understand from his theory is that it is essential that trainers will use the planed procedures of the programme as a guideline for the proposed activities involved in the training process not something that needs to stick from beginning till the end at the cost of losing students’ interests. In the present situation the lesson has not be given so we cannot review it. But as its objectives will have been precisely defined we can measure our performance against them. Some techniques that would be useful at this point are:

1. Prepare students to learn.
No matter how hard we work on the project, if students, the major component of the project are not willing or ready to get trained, the programme is still a flop. I don’t think all the new arrival will participate if they are briefed the programme on their first day of school. There is probably something prevents them to make the right decision. Consequently, to get new international students’ ready for the programme, instead of giving them the catalogue and a introduction of the programme hoping they will become part of it, we, as trainers, need to send the catalogue prior to students’ arrival (say with their acceptance letters).By so doing, students will have more time to decide whether to join the programme or not. However, if this is the case, they will probably try to find out some information available by themselves when they are still at home and may not attend the programme. Or it will motivate them to find out whether there are differences between what it is said on the material available to them and what it is really happening.

2. General survey To evaluate whether a programme is successful or not, we also need to have a look at the students’ response of the project. Therefore, for the French and IT modules, surveys before and after the lessons or activities need to carry out to help trainers to identify their strengths and weaknesses by analysing changes in their performance. The survey can also be initiated to investigate on those who are not willing to participate in the programme. So measures to arise those students’ interests to participate can be initiated.

3. Observation
Observation should not be limited within teachers or among students themselves; it can also between students and teachers, things like how students see their performance changes the trainers’ teaching methodology or how trainers’ way of teaching affect students’ behaviour.

4. Record for future references
Keep a record of everything we do in arousing or discouraging students’ interests in the whole programme for future reference.

Now we need a conclusion
As Guba and Lincoln (1994) argues “What is useful determines what is true; participants perform reality checks by determining increased clarity of understanding; and also try to match methods to specific questions and purposes of research; use mixed methods. Link between researcher and participants; values are made explicit; created findings.” To delimit my confinement in seeing things as a Chinese M.Ed. student, pragmatic ontology, methodology and constructivists’ epistemology and Goad 5-stage model have been used to design the programme.

Reflective practitioner

I value the importance of using concise and precise words to express oneself. However, as far as I am concerned, trainers, especially after having been through the whole process of designing this training programme, I felt, more than ever, that there is no point to be concise or precise if the writer of an article failed to make him or her understood to the reader. In other words, it is no use of putting something that we, as trainers, think is done professionally while giving our students a hard time in guessing what we actually mean. Or even worst, in the case of assignment, came up with something out of our expectations.

As a student, I always dislike teachers using jargons at class or in the assignment sheet, such as the title. I’m always wondering why people like or even emphasizing the importance of using such kind of words. What keeps them from saying what they really mean? Although someone might argue, trainers or writers, in fact use jargon to demonstrate their professionalism in the subject. Yet, l I think the reason we write essays is to pass on our knowledge or understanding of what we studied to help those cannot learn in a formal academic setting to get something out of our findings but not with a mission to confuse others.

This is also important in training and development. If students get no clue about what we are talking about most of time because our over usage of jargons in class then we failed to be qualified trainers. Not to mention to develop learners ability after they complete the programme.

As for knowledge application, Albert Einstein once said that “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” It is hard to imagine that any trainers will be successful in their professional practice if what they do in class is just passing on their understanding of rules in books to their pupils. For me, that’s not learning for development but a process of memorization of certain facts. The reason we attend trainings is to brush our skills and meet the constant changing job requirements or even lay the foundation for future development, therefore, the knowledge we gained from trainings should be transferable. In other words, it serves as a base for us to acquire more knowledge in the future in the forms of self-directed learning or tutor guide type of training programme. Despite the fact that theory will help us to solve some of common problems, we need to be clear that we learn or get trained to become more creative; to apply what we have gained in the past to learn what it takes to be more successful in the future. Not fixing our mind to follow rigorously what we learnt from book every time. Living in an evolving environment, we all know things are changing constantly, accordingly, we should see theory as our guideline not a bible for everything we do. This is also applicable when we conduct a training programme.
.

References

Books

Collier, M. J., and Thomas, M. (1988). Cultural identity: An interpretive perspective. In Y. Y. Kim and W. Gudykunst (Eds.), Theories in intercultural communication (pp.99-122). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Fitzsimmons, A. James. and Fitzsimmons, J. Mona (2008) Service Management Operations, Strategy, Information Technology. (International edition) Singapore: Mc Graw Hill.

Geertz, C. (1983) Local knowledge. New York: Basic Books.

Harrison, R. (1997) Employee Development and Reid, M. and Barington, H. (1997) Training Interventions in Stewart, Jim. (1999) Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Piskurich, M. George. Beckschi, Peter. and Hall, Brandon. (Eds.) (2000) The ASTD Handbook of Training design and delivery: A Comprehensive Guide to Creating and Delivering Training Programs-Instructor-Led, Computer-Based, or Self-Directed. United States of America: McGraw-Hill.

Roscoe, J. (1995) Learning and training design in Stewart, Jim. Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall: 173

Schneider, D. (1976). Notes toward a theory of culture. In K.Basso and H. Selby (Eds.), Meaning in anthropology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Stewart, Jim. (1999) Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Internet

Glion Institute of Higher Education (date?) About Glion our mission and value. Internet. http://www.glion.edu/hotel-school/mission.cfm. Accessed 10/02/2009

.

References: Fitzsimmons, A. James. and Fitzsimmons, J. Mona (2008) Service Management Operations, Strategy, Information Technology. (International edition) Singapore: Mc Graw Hill. Geertz, C. (1983) Local knowledge. New York: Basic Books. Harrison, R. (1997) Employee Development and Reid, M. and Barington, H. (1997) Training Interventions in Stewart, Jim. (1999) Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Roscoe, J. (1995) Learning and training design in Stewart, Jim. Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall: 173 Schneider, D Stewart, Jim. (1999) Employee development practice. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall.