Building Effective Technical Training: How to Develop Hard Skills within Organizations

Building Effective Technical Training is a hands-on guidebook written by William J. Rothwell and Joseph A. Benkowski-- two experts in the field of technical training-- that includes a wealth of information, guidelines, and suggestions for creating and implementing technical training programs for organizations of all types and sizes. In addition, the book is filled with real-life examples and proven techniques from successful technical trainings and includes the authors' own lessons learned from professional lives dedicated to training.

About the Authors

William J. Rothwell, Ph.D., is professor of human resource development in the Department of Adult Education, Instructional Systems and Workforce Education and Development, on the University Park Campus of The Pennsylvania State University. He is also president of Rothwell & Associates, a human resource development consulting firm. He was previously assistant vice president and management development director for The Franklin Life Insurance Company in Springfield, Illinois, and training director for the Illinois office of Auditor General. He has worked full-time in human resource management and employee training and development from 1979 to the present. He thus combines real-world experience with academic and consulting experience. His client list includes over thirty multinational corporations, as well as numerous government and nonprofit organizations.

Dr. Rothwell's latest publications include The Manager and Change Leader (ASTD, 2001); Intervention Selector, Designer and Developer, and Implementor (ASTD, 2000); The Analyst (ASTD, 2000); The Evaluator (ASTD, 2000); The ASTD Reference Guide to Workplace Learning and Performance (3rd ed., 2 vols.; HRD Press, 2000, with H. Sredl); The Complete Guide to Training Delivery: A Competency-Based Approach (Amacom, 2000, with S. King and M. King); Human Performance Improvement: Building Practitioner Competence (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000, with C. Hohne and S. King); Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within (2nd ed.; Amacom, 2000); The Competency Toolkit (2 vols.; HRD Press, 2000, with D. Dubois); and ASTD Models for Human Performance (2nd ed.; ASTD, 2000).

Dr. Rothwell is also first editor of the Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer series, Practicing Organization Development, and first editor of the Jossey-Bass series, Using Technology in Learning and Instruction.

Joseph A. Benkowski, Ph.D., has over thirty years' experience in technical training. He served an apprenticeship in tool and die making and is a jour-neyperson tool and die maker. He taught apprentice program courses and machine shop at the Fox Valley Technical College in Wisconsin and was later apprenticeship coordinator at the same school. He was then employed for eighteen years at Miller Brewing Company, a Fortune 500 company, where he was technical training coordinator and then manager of corporate technical training. He earned his Ph.D. at Penn State University just before retiring from Miller Brewing Company, and he thereupon accepted a teaching position in training and development at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He is currently associate dean for outreach, program director for the master's program in training and development, and director of the Stout Technology Transfer Institute.