Guest blog by Sofie Willox

This article was originally published in Dutch in HR Magazine, March 2022.

It discusses five dimensions that promote learning transfer based on our (Mirjam & Paul) book “Evidence-Informed Learning Design – Creating Training to improve Learning Design”.

To what extent do people actually apply what they’ve learned in a workplace context after a training? Training content can be interesting, but without actual learning transfer we don’t see any behavioural change on the job. So, how do we achieve transfer? Through what I call ‘authentic learning moments’.

Without context we don’t learn

The goal of training is learning (that is, sustainable change in behaviour and cognition; Paul Kirschner calls this a stable change in our long-term memories) so that people can perform to standard in their job. In order to achieve this, the training that we design ideally considers and mirrors, as best as possible…