Abstract
‘Columbus' was a personal and professional development programme in the UK which involved a partnership between managers of educational and industrial organizations. The aim was to assist staff to acquire skills of ‘change capability’ – the ability to cope proactively with change – as a way of addressing higher national training needs. The project ethos was one of a ‘voyage of discovery’, with an emphasis on self-reliance, and of learning via contact with the ‘other cultures' of the partner organizations. A mentoring system was used to underpin self-directed study and learning agreements, and these were the principal methods by which the ‘change capability’ was to be achieved. A pilot group was selected to participate in the first programme. It concluded after twelve months when it became clear that a full-scale programme could not be implemented for reasons discussed in this paper. At that time, however, a qualitative study was commissioned by the Steering Group. The present paper is based on this and describes the participants' experiences and achievements, as well as some of the scheme's distinctive features.
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