ABSTRACT
How do people learn to do their jobs? Most informed observers suggest that employees learn most of what they know and can do based on their experiences while on the job, not in a corporate classroom or other off-the-job training setting. Research has shown that on-the-job training (OJT) can be especially effective in helping employees learn new job-related knowledge and skills (Lave and Wenger 1991; Hart-Landsberg et al. 1992). However, much of the learning that occurs on the job tends to be unplanned, or unstructured, in its nature often resulting in unpredictable and unreliable learning outcomes. That is, having employees acquire job information simply by observing what others are doing or being trained by someone else on an ad hoc basis. Structured on-the-job training (S-OJT) was first introduced in response to the issues inherent in using unstructured forms of OJT (Jacobs and McGiffin 1987). Now, S-OJT is being used in many organizations globally.
