Problems in adult retraining

Abstract The Industrial Training Research Unit is Britain's only research centrse of any size looking into problems of occupational training and is grant‐aided by the DE. ITRU has tended to concentrate its activities on training for manual work, on which it speaks with unique authority. Much of its work is concerned with the retraining of adults, so much so that at one time it was called The Industrial Retraining Unit. Its modus operandi is such as to appeal to practising trainers. Its work is based firmly on research but its aim is to solve practical problems of training encountered inside companies and it is this blend of practical experience with the investigational approach which makes its work so interesting. Any book by these two authors on the subject of training would command respect and attention, but one on the problems of retraining adults represents a milestone. This is the field in which they have specialised for a long time, in which they have an accumulation of hitherto unpublished information. The book describes many actual investigations and training exercises; the authors analyse the exercises, draw their conclusions and, to some extent, deduce certain basic principles. This anecdotal approach makes for easy reading; the deducing of conclusions makes for information which can be applied by the reader. The topics which the authors talk about are those which practising trainers will see as the real issues. All this results in a most exciting and usable book, unique in its field. With the permission of the authors and the publisher we now follow with edited extracts from the chapter which summarises the main conclusions arrived at in the earlier chapters. This is not the complete chapter — only about half of it. We have slightly changed the style of presentation. At this moment there are no agreed principles of adult retraining. We have underscored parts of the text to highlight statements which might reasonably be taken as fundamental principles in this aspect of training. This is our idea, not the idea of the authors whose claims are more modest.