Stop the courses! I want to get off Available to Purchase

Peter Honey presents this article as a contribution to our management training project. Frequently, throughout the project and elsewhere, we have made the point that the intention of the trainer should be to engineer, for the trainee, effective job‐oriented learning experiences. The traditional way of carrying out all training above the manual level has been by organising courses and other forms of direct instruction. In our project we have shown how some go‐ahead firms and colleges have succeeded in escaping from the course obsession. Organising courses is the easy option. But to create effective learning situations which are meaningful in terms of the job calls for much more effort, imagination and innovation. Thus it has come about that formal courses, as the means of improving manager performance, are not merely suspect but are near to falling into disrepute. Peter Honey here states the case against formal, conventional courses, in the field of managing the human resource. Indeed, in this refreshingly‐light contribution, he might even be suspected of OVER‐STATING the case. If this is so, and provided his article drives home the point, we welcome his offering as a worthy contribution to our management training project. Editor