News

New Online Classes Teach Students About Talent Development

New Online Classes Teach Students About Talent Development

March 6, 2018

As with all of the School of Labor and Employment Relations’ curricula, the School’s online programs continue to explore a number of ways to improve the academic experience for our students.
 
“During the past year, we have made significant strides in expanding the offerings available to our Masters in Professional Studies students in Human Resources and Employment Relations,” said Professor of Practice, Antone Aboud.
 
One of the initiatives grew out of the nature of the work experience characteristic of the majority of students in that program who are currently employed in HRER related fields. Staffing, Training and Development has been one of the popular concentrations that students chose to finish their degree.
 
To complete the concentration, students take LER 426, Staffing and Training, pairing that class with an offering in Workforce Education, WF ED 573, Needs Assessment for Industrial Trainers. Many students believed that for a more complete study of this area, they needed two changes. First, they needed a course in staffing that provided a full semester of study. As a result, Jean Phillips authored a new 800 level class, HRER 826, Talent Management. Her involvement with that class greatly benefited from her ongoing research and writing. In that context she has coauthored one of the leading text books addressing talent management: Strategic Staffing.
 
As the Online Team assessed issues related to the training component of what was LER 426, members concluded that the Workforce Education class was somewhat narrow in focus given that it emphasized needs assessment, rather than the broader range of competencies that are currently critical to what we now expect of human resources and employment relations professionals. As a consequence, Aboud leveraged 40 years of experience as a consultant specializing in investigations, risk management and supervision training to create a companion course, HRER 827, Talent Development. The course systematically addresses needs assessment, learning theories and program development. It also provides lessons on talent development topics beyond training, such career management and succession planning. 
 
Both of the classes were offered for the first time this spring semester.