In production units, we are witnessing in many respects a process of expanding demand for education and training. In a biopharmaceutical organization, for example, when education and training needs were assessed, several employees referred also to stress management and needs for basic information on healthy eating in the workplace. With respect to recognition of prior learning, and professional experience of employees, of the 15 companies studied by Bélanger et al. (2004), only two made express mention of this, albeit without putting in place mechanisms to recognize and validate informal learning. In its own 'train the trainer' program, one organization in the food sector will take into account employees' professional experience and hence the need for the trainer to keep each employee's prior experience in mind.
In a second case, a company in the biopharmaceutical sector recognized the professional experience of its production employees, so much so that when new equipment was introduced, it asked some of these employees to visit other plants to observe the manner in which the new equipment was handled and how the work teams were prepared so as to ensure that the different problems that may arise on a daily basis could be foreseen and then resolved. This company also regularly calls upon its operators to prepare a first version of its education and training materials and guides, which are then polished and edited by an outside firm.
With respect to the recognition and validation of prior learning, the situation is currently changing because of the development, by the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail, of the Cadre de développement et de reconnaissance des compétences [Skills development and recognition framework] and the role in recognizing experiential achievements that the sectoral committees (CSMOs) are asked to play after the occupational profiles have been defined.
For an overview of the practices used to evaluate ALT in firms, we will use the taxonomy employed by Kirkpatrick (1998), while recognizing that he tends to neglect the dynamics between structured ALT and learning that occurs through action (Lave et Wenger, 1991) and that he tends to underestimate, at the fourth level, the beneficial impact of ALT investment on the deployment of a learning culture that integrates employees' career plans into the continuing professional development of individuals. This taxonomy provides key categories needed to distinguish and interpret practices that occur subsequent to the training (see Figure 5.1).