THE ON-THE-JOB TRAINING HANDBOOK

A voluminous, wide-ranging guide to on-the-job training.

For better or for worse, on-the-job training has become standard practice, sometimes replacing formal training for new hires or for employees changing roles within an organization. As a result, this handbook may be valuable to supervisors, trainers and trainees themselves. Authors Cox and Landa jammed the book full of information related to on-the-job training—the learning process, curricula, training and testing, self-study, management and more. They also cover various types of handbooks and manuals on common topics: installation, design and engineering manuals; as well as less common ones, such as decommissioning, demolition and disposal. An extensive appendix contains miscellaneous inclusions: everything from job descriptions for a librarian, curator and public information officer, to advice on delegating, problem solving and brainstorming, in addition to information about leadership styles. Parts of the manual seem suited to governmental agencies and the military, while others feel randomly selected. Some may be helpful if somewhat unusual. The chapter on security, for example, sounds governmental in tone, using terms as briefing, debriefing, espionage, need-to-know and intelligence chief. The handbook’s organization also smacks of institutional categorization: Instead of traditional sequential page numbers, each section is identified by a letter, and each chapter within a section by a number. The section on management, for example, titled “M,” labels each of the six chapters M1 through M6, with corresponding page numbers, such as “M 1-1,” “M1-2,” etc. Readers may find this useful or distracting. Despite the occasional idiosyncrasies, this handbook is nothing if not comprehensive.

Basic, simply written information for anyone implementing or supervising an on-the-job training program.