CSO 589: Advanced Training Techniques ~ Course Outline and Reading List, September-December 2016 Semester

COURSE OBJECTIVE

To engage current and prospective trainers and training managers in a joint quest for innovative solutions to the training needs and competency aspirations of different levels of an evolving workforce.

COURSE DESCRIPTION/CONTENT

Key concepts. The nature and patterns of learning in human society. The historical evolution of the learning process. Linkages between Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP), respectively. Applying the KAP model and its derivatives to learning and training situations. Training typologies and training specifications. Selected theories and models of learning, training and skill-acquisition, Un-packaging, repackaging and fine-tuning identified training techniques. Devising innovative solutions for today’s problems. Linking identified training solutions to real-life challenges, and to selected substantive areas (clusters) covered in the Department’s M.A curriculum.

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CSO 405: Sociology of Work and Industry, Course Outline and Reading List, May-August 2016 Semester, Mod I and II

COURSE OBJECTIVE

To construct a detailed understanding of the nature of work in social life, the industrialization process in time and space, and the interface between work and industry.

COURSE DESCRIPTION/CONTENT

Key concepts in the field: labour, working class, socialization into work-roles, the quality of working life (QWL), de-skilling, alienation, motivation, hi-tech, industry, industrialization, work versus employment, and work versus leisure.  Models and theories: Human resource theory, the labour process, the theory of value, socialization theory, import substitution industrialization (ISI), export-oriented industrialization (EOI), labour market segmentation theory, social stratification, the division of labour, articulation of modes of production, de-industrialization, convergence and post-industrial society.  Industrial policies of selected countries in terms of, inter alia, employment, technological change, scale and diversity of production, the role of the informal/Jua Kali sector, ownership, quality of life and implications for the social structure.  The impact of science and technology on society, and vice versa, in terms of the past, the present and future.  Selected aspects of industrial psychology, labour law and migration.

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Training in Kenya: Current and Future Roles of MTTAT ~ Discussion Paper

I. TRAINING IN KENYA: AN OVERVIEW

I.1. Current Policy

At the national level, policy is generically to be understood as a statement of basic principles, broadly-defined goals and/or overall strategies formulated by the state to govern an important segment of national life. A given set of policy statements may change or be modified, abruptly or gradually over time, ahead of the actions to which they call attention or, often enough, after the fact. Sometimes only aspects of a policy change. Sometimes there is no written policy as such -- merely the leanings and gesticulations, so to speak, of the key actors.

Kenya's training policy has so far not been consolidated into any single document. Consequently, some sort of gleaning must be undertaken if a synthesis is to be attempted. Moreover, though MTTAT is "the" training Ministry, not all published policy statements are issued by it. Indeed, many predate its creation in March 1988.

According to the Kamunge report (1988: 35), Kenya's training policy emphasizes the following objectives:

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Skill Acquisition in the Informal Sector: Target Group Identification and Project Feasibility Survey

1. INTRODUCTION

Background:

In the last few years, there has been growing realization in Kenya that if technical training is a prerequisite for self-employment, then the available formal sector training opportunities are too limited vis-a-vis the number of people who require technical training, and rather unfocused in terms of what is required for effective involvement in the informal sector (Yambo, 1991: 3). This has prompted the view that the time has come  to initiate a concerted effort to enable the informal sector to develop the capability to satisfy its own training needs. This view was reinforced by the rediscovery of the fact that informal sector apprenticeship has indeed been in existence -- albeit a low-key existence -- around the country for a considerable length of time already (King, 1977; Williams, 1980; Chepkonga, 1989).

A policy paper issued in 1990 by the Kenyan government acknowledged, probably for the first time, that the country's informal sector represented not only "a large untapped potential" for apprentice training, but also the prospect for "Superior training to apprentices" (Ministry of Planning and National Development, 1990: 41). This point of view was echoed in a recent evaluation of the Taita-Taveta Youth Polytechnic Programme (DANIDA, 1990: 98). However, the obvious evolution of thinking about the place of informal sector apprenticeship in human resource development has had a less than telling effect on the orientation of projects geared to informal sector training, most of which continue to presuppose a large dose of direct formal or "non-formal" sector intervention (Herschbach, 1989: 9-13; King, 1989: 27-35; Goodale, 1989: 58-66; McLaughlin, 1990: 160-174). In other words, practice is yet to catch up with "theory".

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Youth Polytechnics and HIT: What Future for Self-Employment in Kenya?

The research work that informs this paper was done in late 1980s and early 1990s. The paper speaks essentially to the policy issues and employment context of that period, primarily in Kenya but to some extent elsewhere in Africa as well. Be that as it may, much that I say in this paper remains of considerable relevance to today's conversations about skill acquisition, employment creation and self-employment.

I have so far not sought to publish the contents of this paper in any journal. So it has remained a manuscript. Nevertheless, I have lately thought that it would be useful to share its contents with a wider readership than the occasional allusions or references to parts of it in my Work and Industry class. So I offer it here:


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The Apprentice's PKA

In a recent blog piece, focusing broadly on KAP, I remarked as follows:

"The 'KAP approach' is indeed not immune to this ebb and flow of a puzzle. However, its focus of attention is not directly on the easier path to the knowledge-action space. Rather, the focus is on the (taken-for-granted) flow of effects that one should typically see, empirically if not so readily theoretically, from imparted knowledge, as the starting point, to attitude (a concept which subsumes/ presumes values) and on to behavior or practice. Clearly, however, K is not always the starting point of the great variety of human ventures that we can bring to mind. The explorer's mind-set, for example, does rearrange the KAP sequence into another: APK." 

READ: The Explorer's APK

Here, I want to say something very briefly about PKA, which is qualitatively different from KAP and APK. I make use of the confounding and yet familiar imagery of the apprentice. I want to say that, first and foremost, the apprentice 'apprehends' the responsibilities and expectations of his or her 'chosen' work-role through, and by means of, practice. That is to say, the 'practical' apprehension of a specific form of practice makes the apprentice. A keen look at the phenomenology of apprenticeship supports this eye-view. So, too, the weight of definitions of it.

Apprentice training is a form of output training, as defined by Mullins (1999: 689-90). According to him, output training is typically conducted by small enterprises or organizations, whose driving concern is to optimize output from new employees or newly deployed equipment within the shortest time possible. The goal is to defray the costs of such employment or deployment in the shortest time possible, and/or to justify the investment risk involved (Mullins, 1999: 689-90). 

Mullins (1999: 689) adds that "This type of training is centred around the individual, is performed in-house and is only initiated when new equipment, product or persons are introduced into the organisation." 

Mullins' definition is consistent with several others. For example, The Working Centre defines apprenticeship as "a workplace-based training program for people who want to work in a skilled trade" (see ww.theworkingcenter.org). One online business dictionary likewise defines apprenticeship as a:

"[A method] in which trainees learn a craft or trade by hands-on experience while working with a skilled worker, usually under a written or implied indentureship agreement."

Here is a more extended definition by Fuller and Unwin (2013: 2):

"Apprenticeship should be a model of learning for skill formation which takes the apprentice on a journey to becoming a full member of an occupational community. This assumes that there is a defined occupational community to join; and that apprenticeship is a recognised and formalised route to achieving the relevant occupational expertise required to join the community. What follows from this is that each occupation has a defined knowledge-base and an associated curriculum which has to be completed and examined in order for the apprentice to show that they meet the requirements to practice as a recognised member of the community. As a result, the apprentice has at the outset a clear sense of the occupation they are aiming for, and that if they meet the requirements they will gain the necessary certification for employment in that occupation." 

These definitions suggest that the apprentice's course or trajectory of skill-acquisition does not track the standard 'KAP approach'. Instead, what we witness is a PKA process whereby learning begins emphatically with Practice, which generates Knowledge -- certainly of the 'how-to' variety. Knowledge culminates in Attitude change, or attitude settling. 

One may of course prefer an alternative view, whereby the apprentice's P in due course branches simultaneously and equally (in)to K and A, with the two eventually fusing into a sort of K/A, or even A/K. However, I find PKA to be more logically sustainable.

REFERENCES
Fuller, Alison and Lorna Unwin (2013) "Apprenticeship and the Concept of Occupation: Briefing Paper" London Institute of Education, University of London (www.gatsby.org.uk)

Mullins, Laurie J. (1999) Management and Organisational Behaviour. London: Financial Times Pitman Publishing