Ad hoc education and training activities are organized primarily around the arrival of new equipment and the establishment of new procedures, or new health and safety or quality standards. One food-products company, for example, organized training and information sessions when it developed links with university research centres and government programs designed to support innovation, which required it to change its procedures and products (Bélanger et al.,2004).
Various specific education and training activities that are less directly linked to the employee's job are offered: computer training, language courses, management courses. In some cases, the organization will ask everyone to recruit volunteers, in other cases it will target a particular department. In the cases studied by Bélanger et al. (2004), these kinds of activities often have a proactive value and meet a need for mobility and professional development of the employees. For example, in one large food-processing company, language courses are offered to everyone because of the company's interest in increasing exports.
The research of Bélanger et al. (2004) shows that this kind of participation in ALT activities is often instigated and paid for by the employer, despite the fact that it is usually given outside the organization. Public education institutions (CEGEPs, universities and school boards) and private service providers are often the provider. Reimbursements of the cost of these courses is often part of the mandatory 1% budget dedicated to ALT, as required by the Quebec Act to foster the development of manpower training.
During a person's employment, on-the-job education and training meet a need for operationalization and suitability for a particular position by updating the employee's skills. Usually, on-the-job training is designed to introduce and integrate new equipment, a new procedure or a new product. This involves making it easier to handle new equipment and put in place a new work technique or organization.
On-the-job training in some of the large industrial companies studied by Bélanger et al. (2004) sometimes consists of two parts: a theoretical "in class" part, which is tied into a practical part involving the application of the technique. For its part, training in new products or new equipment is generally given by the supplier and may be given in the company or on the supplier's premises ; in the latter case, it sometimes takes the form of a "one-day fair." Mentoring by a more experienced employee occurs in the cases studied as a form of supervision of training, but usually the trainer comes from outside. For example, one company decided, in order to better integrate a new computer system for managing operations, to combine several training strategies. The company decided, together with a consultant, to combine several training strategies and to focus on the active involvement of the various work teams. The technical training of the staff was divided between internal and external providers; employees were trained to give training and there was even room to adjust and reconfigure the system, together with the consultants, to reflect the company's general requirements and constraints and the particular characteristics of the different departments. Finally, individualized follow-up was provided, with the co-operation of the employee trainers, for each position on request.