Sanlam Sky is a division of the Sanlam Group focusing on the developing markets. The division plays an important role in employing previously disadvantaged people with little or no prior training and experience. Training is the methodical development of Knowledge, Skills and Attitude that is required by the employee to perform a given task on the job satisfactorily. The training department therefore has a key responsibility of providing effective training to the newly appointed and existing employees and can be viewed as an essential vehicle for company success. The study identified that investment is allocated for the training and development of employees over the past years at Sanlam Sky and the organisation has not measured the effectiveness of training prior to this study. The main purpose of this study was to determine if the training initiatives at Sanlam Sky are effective or not and then identify factors to improve effectiveness of training at Sanlam Sky. The study also addresses the question of “what are the assessment methods for measuring T&D effectiveness that exist in the literature?” The empirical study included the distribution of a self-administered questionnaire amongst operations and distribution staff. Data was collected from multiple sources including 88 respondents and triangulated with unstructured interview data sourced from the learning managers; this data was used to assess the effectiveness of training and develop strategies for improvement. The findings indicate that the training provided at Sanlam Sky is effective, however there are no clear guidelines on identifying training needs in the organisation. The study identified that there is no evaluation framework that is used at Sanlam Sky. The trainees are not given an opportunity to choose how they want their training to be facilitated. Hypothesis of the study was tested and finally the study offers recommendations to be implemented in improving the effectiveness of training.

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / Rugby games are characterised by intense bursts of speed mainly executed by backline players at either maximum or sub-maximum velocities over distances of up to 70 meters. Other key features of the game include rapid directional changes, displays of power and other dynamic activities such as lifting and jumping in the lineouts, tackling, pushing in scrums and contesting for the ball. These bouts of intense physical activity constitute a major part of the game, which take place over a period of 80 minutes and in some instances even longer. These powerful spells of play are interspersed by brief periods of rest mainly due to stoppages called by the referees when rules are infringed, when the ball is out of play, or when players incur injuries. These breaks can also be due to play being reviewed by match officials. It is quite evident from the aforementioned that speed, agility and power are essential performance components for any rugby player and, with an increased focus on mobility and speed in the modern game, the importance of these components has increased in significance. Coaches are consequently continuously searching for training and coaching techniques that will maximally develop these qualities to give their teams an advantage over their opponents. Both line sprinting and plyometric training have proven to have beneficial effects on speed and power output. However, there is a dearth of research information on which one of the two approaches is the most beneficial. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine which training regime, line sprinting or plyometric training, brings about the biggest improvement in the speed, lower body power output, agility and speed of intermediate rugby players. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design, as it did not include a control group. Participants included 22 rugby players participating at club level, aged 18-25 years, with training sessions on at least three days of the week and a league or friendly match once a week. The players were randomly placed in either the line sprinting group or the plyometric training group (11 players per group). Participants were informed of the possible experimental risks of the study. All participants were required to complete a health questionnaire to ensure no chronic illnesses or major signs and symptoms suggestive of coronary artery or pulmonary disease were present in anyone taking part in the study. Participants took part in either sprint or plyometric training twice a day, with at least one day of rest in between training days. Participants were assessed on their speed, speed endurance, agility and power components pre -and post the eight-week intervention period. For the speed tests done before and after the intervention programme, participants performed maximal sprints over 40- and 80-metre distances. For agility, the T-test was used, and for power, the standing long jump. The research received ethics clearance from the University of the Western Cape’s Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (Ethics Reference Number: BM17/1/17). After the eight-week intervention programme, the line sprinting group improved significantly in their performances for three of the four performance measures. The only measure that did not improve significantly was the 80m sprint. The plyometric group on the other hand showed improvements in two categories only - agility and the standing long jump – while no significant improvements were found in any of the sprint distances. In conclusion, the findings demonstrated that both line sprinting and plyometric training regimes are effective in improving agility and leg power and that line sprinting performed over 10, 20, 40 and 100 metres is an effective training protocol to improve 40m sprint time. Neither the line sprinting nor the plyometric training resulted in significant improvements over the 80-m distance. A comparison of the effect sizes of the two training methods revealed that except for the improvement in agility of the plyometric training group, the speed, power and sprint endurance training benefits of these two training methods do not differ.

Children diagnosed with autism exhibit deficits in communication that impact their ability to control their immediate environment. Recent research on mand training has been criticized for producing a limited number of mand topographies over a long span of time with limited generalization to novel environments. There is a body of research, however, that successfully establishes larger repertoires. Training parents as change agents may mediate generalization by teaching under naturally maintaining contingencies. Additional effects of parent training may reduce parent reports of stress, increase favorable quality of parent-child interactions, and increase reports of parental self-efficacy. The current study evaluated the effects of a generalized training framework to teach parents how to target generalized mands and expand their child’s communicative topographies. The effects of the training were evaluated using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants and skills. Results indicated that parents were able to effectively teach their child to mand for a variety of items and events and to substantially increase the number of different mand topographies and expand the topographies the child emitted. Parents were observed to have higher overall confidence and lower overall stress following intervention. The current study builds on previous research on generalized teaching strategies for parents that are effective in teaching a variety of responses to the child.

This study examined the longitudinal relationship between repetitions in reserve (RIR) and average concentric velocity (ACV) in the back squat and bench press exercises. Fourteen resistance-trained men were randomized into two groups (4-6RIR or 1-3RIR) and completed a six-week program. The RIR/ACV slope was significantly greater (p<0.001) in the bench press (0.027±}0.001m.s-1) than squat (0.020±}0.001m.s-1), and was steeper in 1-3RIR than 4-6RIR (p<0.001). The RIR/ACV relationship varied from set-to-set (p=0.001); however, the largest difference in ACV at the same RIR from set-to-set was only 0.044 m.s-1; likely not practically meaningful. The RIR/ACV relationship changed over time (p=0.004); however, since training was not to failure, it is unclear if this longitudinal change was due to improved RIR accuracy or a true change in the RIR/ACV relationship. Therefore, the RIR/ACV relationship is exercise-specific and practically stable from set-to-set; however, future research is needed to determine the long-term stability of this relationship. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) now exist for a variety of psychological disorders; however, few individuals have access to these treatments and even fewer receive them in well delivered form. This has been termed the research-practice gap. It is likely that a combination of factors contribute to individuals not receiving good quality ESTs. One major reason is the limited availability of effective training in these treatments. Although many therapists wish to learn such treatments, they seldom have the opportunity as training relies on scarce expert resources and is costly. Furthermore, relatively little is known about the effectiveness of this method or how best to train clinicians: despite having evidence-based treatments, there are no evidence-based trainings. This dissertation examined one example of an EST - enhanced cognitive behavior therapy for eating disorders (CBT-E) - with the overarching aim of evaluating both existing, and commonly accepted, training methods, as well as, newly developed more scalable ones. How best to train clinicians in CBT for eating disorders has not been investigated previously. The Kirkpatrick training evaluation framework was adopted to guide the studies. Chapter One provided an overview of the research-practice gap with a particular emphasis on the obstacles faced in training therapists. Chapter Two reviewed the literature on training in ESTs and highlighted gaps in the research evidence and areas for improvement in future studies. An important conclusion was that, although studies varied in design and the precise form and content of the training investigated, results were mostly consistent in indicating that knowledge and skills tended to improve following training. However, the outcome measures used to assess training were often poorly described with unknown psychometric properties. Perhaps most importantly the lack of clearly defined competence cut-points made interpretation difficult. In addition, much of the training investigated had limitations in terms of scalability. Chapters Three, Four and Five, aimed to overcome some of these difficulties and provided a series of studies investigating training in CBT-E. Chapter Three employed qualitative methods to investigate trainees' reaction to conventional workshop and more scalable web-based training and found that although trainees enjoyed training, they had a variety of reasons for not planning to implement the treatment as learned. Chapters Four and Five evaluated the impact of different forms of training on knowledge and skill acquisition respectively. Training in CBT-E was associated with increases in knowledge especially when paired with supervision or scalable guidance, which proved feasible and acceptable to clinician trainees. The results for skill acquisition were less clear, but the new scalable online training was associated with therapists achieving competence. Finally Chapter Six discussed the broader implications of the work and highlighted areas for future research.

This study investigated the effects of a shaping program for halter training across 8 steps in the program and 4 trial-terminating, or "undesirable," responses. Three La Mancha goats (Capra hircus) located at the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville, Texas were used for the study. A fixed-time 15 s (FT-15 s) was used during the baseline conditions, to examine the effects of response contingent and response-independent food deliveries, as well as to examine what preliminary steps might not necessarily have to be shaped. All 3 goats successfully learned to allow the halter to be placed on them and to lead on the halter, although 2 of the 3 goats required an additional task analysis for the fifth step to further break down that approximation. Several of the early steps selected by the researchers were not necessary to complete the program, as determined by the baseline condition.

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The purpose of this study was to determine if extended periods of time out of the training environment has an effect on the retention of training. The rationale for conducting this study was based on the fact that little research has been done in this area. The findings of the study indicated that extensive periods of time out of training do significantly influence the amount of training retained fromone loadmaster course to the other. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between the number of days out of training and the posttest scores. The optimum training break between courses appears to be between 10 and 20 days. Training retention is apparently affected by time.

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A problem in counselor education is the need to develop methods that would be more directly related to effective outcome in counseling. Researchers have concluded that success in counseling goals is related to clients' increased ability to monitor and modify their own behaviors and that counselor trainees whose education included an emphasis on learning self-regulation skills would be more effective in bringing about greater client self-regulation. Another need is for a theoretical formulation toward the development of more effective instructional methods. The concepts of holism and self-control, which were considered potentially useful within the theoretical system of Adler's Individual Psychology were combined with the methods of biofeedback, imagery, and self-control skills training in the synthesis of a prototypical instructional set. The purpose of the study was to experimentally evaluate this set and the potential validity and utility of the proposed conceptual framework. The hypothesis was that four graduate counselor students would demonstrate improvement in self-regulatory attitudes and behaviors after the treatment condition, which consisted of the instructional set. Electromyographic (EMG) physiological measurements, and scores on the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External locus-of-control scale were used to assess changes in the subjects' self-regulation, using the single-subject, multiple baseline across-subjects experiment design. Analysis of the results showed that subjects improved in control of muscle activity and in attitudinal direction of internal locus of control. The EMG physiological measurement was considered useful for this type of study, showing an adequate balance of sensitivity and stability. However, the locus-of-control measure was not considered adequate for this population because of an observed "floor" effect. The results were interpreted as having supported the hypothesis and were considered to have established the usefulness of the theoretical framework to generate research and the potential utility of the instructional method in counselor education. Suggestions are made for improvement for the use of EMG scores in the baseline phase and for minimal requirements for an adequate attitudinal scale for further research in this area.