training: the choices ahead part 2

In part one I attempted to establish some background against which a well‐informed investigation of the national system of occupational training might be undertaken. I introduced readers to my maintenance/change model of training which separates training into two forms, different but inter‐dependent: maintenance training which is designed to keep the organisation going along as it has been going; and change training designed to adapt the organisation to future conditions. I also advanced the view that it is quite inevitable that management (and therefore training which is a part of it) will have to take into account political issues which it previously made a great show of avoiding. I made a third point: that management training is a very recent innovation in the UK and that our present incompetent performance as a nation is part of the price we have to pay for having neglected it in the past. A price just had to be paid sooner or later. In this article I develop further the political theme: the idea that an organisation and its managers cannot operate successfully in the present environment without a high measure of political awareness; that trainers ought now to be facing political issues in their inplant courses and seminars; and that they should already be experimenting in an attempt to discover how to handle this potentially explosive area.