On the Job Training : A Case Study. NCEE Brief Number 9 / Sylvia Scribner and Patricia Sachs.

A case study of on-the-job training was conducted in the stockroom of an electronics manufacturer. The focus was on education embedded in ongoing work activities, in contrast to school-based learning as an activity separate from other life activities. Throughout the study, the interplay of two activities--stockroom work and stockroom training--was analyzed to determine the following: (1) the social aspects of training and working; (2) differences between work during training and experienced work; and (3) the communicative aspects of training. It is noted that, although the company recognizes the need to train new workers and experienced workers are told to train them, training is not included in job descriptions nor do workers get paid extra for it. The study reached the following conclusions: (1) although new workers were expected to take on their responsibilities without being specifically trained for them, even ad hoc on-the-job training is a powerful educative practice at least for initial levels of competency; (2) practical methods and reciprocal teaching characterized on-the-job training; (3) although the company had no specific training curriculum or plan, training methods appeared to be indigenous in workplace communities; and (4) to the extent that training does not facilitate or accelerate the process of becoming adept at troubleshooting or other demanding tasks in an organized way it cannot be fully effective in long-term career development. (NLA)

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