Competitiveness of any industrialized nation is defined in the 21st century knowledge economy more than ever by highly skilled employees working in learning organisations (Noe, 2010; Cheng and Hampson, 2008; Drucker, 1999). Knowledge creation which was subject to experts and academics in the past is now deeply embedded in everyday life and organisational contexts (Gibbons et al., 2010; Nowotny et al., 2003).
Behind this background people development and training as means to acquire and create knowledge as well as skills is of high priority for every organisation. Effective training design determines whether investment in people development and training has an impact on individual and organisational performance. While the objective is clear reality shows a different picture.
With an estimated 15-20% of training investments having an actual impact on work performance (Griffin, 2011; Grossman and Salas, 2011; Leimbach, 2010) a transfer gap exists. This report will scrutinize key barriers to effective training designs by drawing on theory and research and provide recommendations on how these barriers can be overcome.