How Trainees Transfer What They Have Learned: Toward a Taxonomy of Use

Researchers have consistently advocated for clearer concepts and better operational definitions of measures of training transfer. To clarify what trainees actually do on the job, we defined transfer as use on the job of what was learned in training and developed a prototype taxonomy of use. To form the taxonomy we asked, “How do relatively autonomous workers, taught open skills, use in their work what they have learned from training?” To create categories of use, we analyzed, defined, and reorganized former trainees’ stories of application from studies by Yelon and others (Yelon, Reznich, & Sleight, 1997; Yelon, Sheppard, Sleight, & Ford, 2004; Yelon, Ford, & Golden, 2013). We identified, as part of the prototype taxonomy the actions, content, conditions, tasks, purposes, and beneficiaries of different types of use. We discuss how this multidimensional framework provides a way of conceiving of and measuring transfer as use and the implications for practice and research.