In the abstract, training is seen as valuable by most people in business
and industry. However, in the rush of providing training programs "on
time" and "within budget," evaluation of training is frequently left
behind as a "nice to have" addition, if practical. In addition, the
training function itself is left with the dilemma of proving its worth
to management without a substantive history of evaluation. This book is
designed to provide managers, educators, and trainers alike the
opportunity to explore the issues and benefits of evaluating business
and industry training. The purpose is to motivate more effective
decisions for training investments based on information about the value
of training in attaining business goals. Without evaluation, the value
of specific training efforts cannot be adequately measured, the value of
training investments overall cannot be fully assessed, and the
contributions of the training function to the corporation's goals cannot
be duly recognized. Articles are grouped into three sections, althou h
many themes appear across sections. The first section estabhshes the
context of training evaluation in a business organization. The second
section emphasizes evaluation of training products and services; and the
third section discusses costs and benefits of evaluation, and
communication and use of evaluation results in decision making. In
Section I, the context of training evaluation is established from a
variety of perspectives. First, training and trainin evaluation are
discussed in the context of corporate strateglc goals.