Challenges in Human Resource Development Practitioner Preparation

Organisational learning and skill formation initiatives are increasingly being seen as contributing to the achievement of organisational competitiveness in the contemporary economy. As a result, the development of employees has become a more prominent organisational practice. Since Human Resource Development (HRD) practitioners are primarily responsible for employee development there is a need for them to become more highly skilled to ensure that their practice meets the changing needs of organisations. Formal educational programs in the practice of HRD provide a way of assisting practitioners to acquire the skills they now need for effective practice. The design of such programs, however, is problematic given the emergent and cross-disciplinary nature of the ® eld. This paper surfaces some of the challenges associated with program design for the development of HRD practitioners, drawing from discussions in, and pro® ling research from, the HRD literature. The ® nal section of the paper proposes several key areas that need to be addressed in preparatory programs for HRD practitioners.

edged, for the purposes of this paper those working in organisations with positional labels including enterprise trainer, training of® cer, trainer and developer, learning strategist or consultant, performance developer, organisational developer and staff development of® cer are being collapsed into one occupational category. All of these labels have been or are being used in organisations and in the literature to designate those whose primary work is to improve performance in organisational settings through fostering learning (Mulder, 1992). The paper also uses the term Human Resource Development as an umbrella term to describe the work of such practitioners. It therefore considers HRD practice as encompassing