ABSTRACT
The landscape of learning and development has changed radically over recent years due to many different factors, not least shifting requirements around skills gaps and the methods used by organizations to address these. Emerging technologies in particular are playing a key role in helping to find innovative ways of helping people of all ages to develop knowledge and skills. The early history of human resource development (HRD) was shaped by both historical events and the transformative contributions of many pioneering thinkers in the field. By the early 1900s the beginnings of the scientific management movement were providing insights into good management practice. By the early 1970s the term ‘human resource development’ was being used to determine a field of operation distinct from human resource management. A key development during this period was a growing recognition of the importance of organizational learning, a term used in different ways and at different levels of analysis.
