American Society for Training & Development

The Association for Talent Development (ATD), formerly American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), is a non-profit association for workplace learning and performance professionals.

Membership

ATD has an international as well as US membership base (more than 100 countries; 122 U.S. chapters; 26 global networks, and 12 global partners). The association’s membership work in various types of organizations, including government offices, and independent consultants and suppliers.

Competency model

Based on findings from a 2004 Competency Study, ATD created a competency model as a guide for its professional constituency. The model includes three tiers: foundational competencies, areas of expertise (designing learning, improving human performance, delivering training, measuring and evaluating, facilitating organizational change, managing the learning function, coaching, managing organizational knowledge, and career planning and talent management), and roles, and is a frame of reference for career growth and professional development. This model is a basis for ATD’s Certified Professional in Learning and Performance credential offered by the ATD Certification Institute.

Training and development

Training and development is a function of human resource management concerned with organizational activity aimed at bettering the performance of individuals and groups in organizational settings. It has been known by several names, including "Human Resource Development", "Human Capital Development" and "Learning and Development". These definitions, of course, are viewed within the context of organizational learning rather than other contexts (e.g. personal) of training and development.

History

The name of the discipline has been debated, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2000 arguing that "human resource development" is too evocative of the master-slave relationship between employer and employee for those who refer to their employees as "partners" or "associates" to feel comfortable with. Eventually, the CIPD settled upon "learning and development", although that was itself not free from problems, "learning" being an over-general and ambiguous name, and most organizations referring to it as "training and development".