Self‐instruction — an approach to staff training

The Cabinet Office (Management and Personnel Office) has had published on its behalf by HM Stationery Office a handbook under the above title, reviewed in this issue (see Texts), which provides a basis for making judgements about self‐instruction as an approach to staff training. It examines a wide range of self‐instructional methods, addressing policy, financial and managerial decisions which must accompany their use. The Civil Service was one of the first employers in the UK to adopt this method of training, and several government departments now use it extensively. The author of both the handbook and this article, Harry Day MBE, a retired civil servant, spent the major part of his later career working on a wide range of specialist training duties, prominent among which was his extensive involvement with self‐instruction.