The evaluation and assessment of training and development programs has been a means by which instructors have used to ascertain the quality of service that they render to their students. However, the process of assessing and evaluating has its own difficulty that makes it to some extent extraneous and unreliable. This essay seeks to explain some of the reasons why the evaluation and assessment of training and development programs is so difficult.
First of all, it is important to note that the feedback that is received from trainees in some cases may be bias. This means that personal attitudes towards instructors might be evident in the evaluation results. Students who dislike a given instructor for the personal reasons might rate a given program as not being suitable while in reality the students benefit maximally from a given program (Goldstein, 1986, p.21). In addition, it is worth noting that trainees might at times not be the best source of information in the evaluation and assessment of a given program (Kleiman, 2010, p.34). This is because there are incidences whereby students are already contented with what they achieve from a given program. This would mean that students might not obtain all the set objectives of a given course but at the end of the program they are contented. Failure of students to outline some of the weaknesses that are associated within a given instructor and the structure of a given program is also a difficulty that has been experienced by instructors. One thing to realize is that students are rational actors and in some incidences note that the higher the expectations of a given program, the more work and commitment is required of them. In order to reduce the workload of a given program, a reasonable proportion of students find it reasonable to be contented with the already existing standards.
References
Kleiman, L (2010). Human resource management (7th ed.). Boston: Irwin McGraw Hill.
Goldstein, I. L. (1986). Training in organizations: needs assessment, development, and evaluation (2nd ed.). Monterey, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co..
