Overview

In the previous chapter it was argued that the most critical learning needs in an engineering organization often involve small numbers of people needing to gain very advanced proficiencies. A further summary of the engineering career development challenge follows:

• Many Topics The products produced are often complex, and call on a variety of engineering disciplines in which the company must possess expertise.

• Small Number of People per Subject A small cadre of experts in any given discipline ensures that others have a source for learning and growth, and that the company provides leadership in continued enhancement of that discipline.

• High Required Proficiencies In order to accomplish the preceding, the company must ensure that mechanisms are in place to support the continuous development of expertise keeping up with technical change and building future technical leadership.

The preceding chapter also pointed out that the need just described is not at all well served by the structure and priorities of most corporate training organizations. A quantum shift in the approach to learning in the workplace is required. Such a shift will necessarily involve the active support and leadership of the company s management. Thus the discussion must begin with management roles if changes in the approach to employee learning are to be addressed.

This chapter begins by addressing the specific problem of building management support. The roles of engineering management in creating the foundation of a new learning model are then described in successive sections. Their active involvement...