The training and development of yourself and your support team is vital to your ability to adapt to the rapidly changing environment in which pharmacy operates. Training may well result in personal growth and increased capability and it can often be fun and motivational. However, its prime purpose is relatively simple: it is to enable employees to do their jobs or to do them more effectively. This can be summed up in one phrase €“ added value.

There is absolutely no reason why training for profit enhancement or for added value should limit or detract from the many and varied personal benefits that individuals will accrue from training and development programmes. But we must ensure that all training that we invest time and money in is correctly targeted, takes account of individual learning preferences, is properly supported back in the workplace and is rigorously evaluated on a number of levels.

Only in this way will you reap the full benefit that truly effective training brings. If you understand how people learn and how best to support them, the more likely it is that this will happen.

References and further reading

Further help and advice on personal development can be found from a wide variety sources:

• Kirkpatrick DL, Kirkpatrick JD. Evaluate Training Programs: the four levels, 3rd edition. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler; 2006.
• The Manager's Pocketbook. Alresford, Management Pocketbook Series. 1998.
• Honey P, Mumford A. Honey & Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ), www.peterhoney.com