Mid Atlantic Professional Development Center Lengthening The Half Life Of Learning Case Solution

1. Case Study

Mid-Atlantic Professional Development Center (MAPCD) and Creative Customized Technologies (CCT) were involved in a deal of educational programs where MAPCD would provide executive education (EE) to the managers of CCT. The program would span around three years and would generate respectable revenues for MAPCD. A concern for the human resources officer of CCT was that the managers go about their normal routine even after returning from educational training, and they do not transmit any of the learning into the work environment. The transfer of learning to the work place was what CCT looked for and was expecting MAPCD to provide.

MAPCD was run by six people who had extensive experience of executive education (EE), and decided to move into the market under their separate banner. The six individuals had administrators as well as instructors of EE at well reputed schools. After a shaky start, the company established itself to a respectable level in the industry. Their reputation of close linkage with their clients, as well as a well balanced curriculum comprising of dynamic instruction method and style made them renowned in the business. They offered a wide range of course content and were well experienced in teaching about almost every professional industry. MAPCD also followed a strict code when functioning with a fresh buyer. It basically followed the procedure where the course content was made with close co ordination with the client and was only taught when approved. 

CCT was a technology company which had government clients such as home land security or national intelligence. They had grown into a large company, and the organization decided that it was time to teach executive education to their tech savvy managers. CCT set out to look for programs that would develop future leaders, and MAPCD was the company that provided everything they looked for. CCT was not looking for monetary returns on their investment, but value added by the managers when they return from training. CCT knew about the problems most of the EE programs had, and transferred those concerns to MAPCD. MAPCD’s director thought that it would be best that new and creative ideas were formulated by the instruction team. They would look for a needs assessment, and portray the ideas to CCT about the possibility of managers retaining executive education, and implementing it in their work place. The director himself would try to formulate some ideas to ease the concerns of CCT about executive education. 

2. Transfer of Learning

i. Ideas before the program commences

Transfer of learning is the use of skills and knowledge gained during the EE, and transferring them to the workplace. The major goal of EE is to promote the transfer, and the major goal is not achieved when transfer does not occur (Subedi, 2004). The root problem with EE is the same for CCT that there was no transfer of training or transfer of learning.

There are many ways to help ease the transfer, and the most influential one is to discover the variables that facilitate the transfer which might be different for every organization. Before the program commences, there is a need to lay a careful plan as to how the EE will be approached for the organization and its employees. There are several models and approaches that can be helpful in facilitating the transfer. Some of these perspectives are cognitive, behavioral and sociological. These three perspectives must be followed if there is to be any transfer, because these three perspectives are followed by every organization even though their characteristics vary significantly for each case (Sense, 2011).