Skill Formation and the Enterprise

What drives enterprise training? Evidence from Australia

“…First, it is apparent, as other commentators have suggested, that human capital theory is de® cient in its treatment of training at the enterprise level (Curtain, 1987;Bishop, 1994). The distinction between general and speci® c training was not found to be of much explanatory power in the study.…”

The Labour Process and Industrial Relations: Review of the Literature

“…Further case-studies of technological change, deskilling and changes in the division of labour in particular industries have also emerged (Reed, 1987;Ellem, 1987). As well, the increasing public prominence of questions surrounding productivity, efficiency, skill and training have channelled and will continue to channel interest into the question of skill formation within the enterprise (Curtain, 1987), as well as more general aspects of the labour process and union responses to management initiatives (Frenkel, 1987).…”

“…Flexibility is associated with multi-skilling and multi-skilling is not deskilling. (See Curtain, 1987; for one Australian critique of the flexible specialization thesis, see Bramble, 1988).…”

Technologically mediated learning: The future of training in Australia

“…Trends reported by Smith (1988) in the USA indicate that courses produced internally by companies are replacing off-the-shelf and university style courses, and this is tentatively confirmed in Australia (Curtain, 1987). Smith and Delahaye (1988: 133) suggest the trend to CBT 'will be accelerated considerably by the advent of user-friendly authoring systems .…”