“Modern” learning methods: rhetoric and reality – further to Sadler‐Smith et al .

Working in the UK, Sadler‐Smith, Down and Lean, in their article “‘Modern’ learning methods: rhetoric and reality”, Personnel Review, Vol. 29 No. 4, 2000, pp. 474‐90, have shown that distance learning methods are neither favoured nor perceived as effective by enterprises pursuing training that yields a competitive edge. They have suggested that these methods need to be integrated with other more conventional on‐job training methods. This paper, based on Australian research, shows a tension between the requirements of flexible training methods based on distance learning methods, and the characteristics that typify learners and their workplaces. That identified tension is used to suggest how an integration of training methods may be effected in workplaces.