Barriers Faced in Effective Training Transfer: A Research on Foreign Students

Abstract Training is one of the frequently used strategy for introducing change, developing human capital and improving organizational performances. However, the concern over training initiatives has been and still is the transfer and use of training content to the work environment as substantiated by literature from disciplines such as psychology, education and management. The training transfer (TT) environment where training is to be used is considered one of the most important determinant of TT as it either facilitate TT or inhibits it. Therefore, the trainee’s positive perception of the TT climate has the potential to positively facilitate their transfer of training content to the work environment and vice versa. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the trainees’ perception of the factors at the TT environment that facilitated or inhibited (barriers faced) the transfer of Turkish language learnt from Gazi T？MER to the relevant environment. In the process, establishing the support that was received from the various Human Resource actors at the TT environment in enhancing the general TT outcomes. This was done with the believe that, the experience gained from this study would be used in bettering TT initiatives in underdeveloped African countries where training projects for poverty alleviation and sensitization of communities on development related concerns have in most cases failed to bear fruits partly due to TT environmental issues. In a semi-structured interview process, a total of forty former Gazi T？MER foreign students who undertook a Turkish language proficiency training between the year 2014 and 2015 were individually interviewed. The findings suggested that, the trainees positively perceived the TT environment leading to the transfer of Turkish language mainly as a result of the support provided by the various Human Resource actors at the TT environment. Basing on the aims of the T？MER training, there was a reported low transfer of academic Turkish mainly due to training design problem, trainees’ characteristics and language transfer requiring time to fully be transferred to the environment