Mirrors,Butterflies,and Training Policy

Abstract

Training holds a central place in the activities required to enable an economy to change and grow, but because it relates largely to process and changing capacity over time, it is an area where the limitations of traditional economics as an aid to decision-making are readily seen. Examples are given of practical areas where the narrow methodologies of neo-classical economics are unable to analyze training in a way which is useful for policy purposes. The abandonment of the view that theory can provide a perfect mirror of nature allows appraisal of the common sense view of the training professional. A broad range of social science methodologies can be applied to the analysis of the economic aspects of training. Economics itself has a contribution to made, but a limited one. Most of the problems of training policy today are much the same across industrialized countries and concern the different institutional responses to similar challenges. The search for good procedures in training policy, as in other areas of decision-making, is more important than many of the particular decisions taken. It is good planning and evaluation procedures which can modify the unforeseen impacts of poor decisions in time.