What is Generic Skills

The foundation for a productive, efficient and effective workforce is high quality and relevant training and ideally, educators, policy makers and the industry practitioners should agree on what should be included in training programs. This chapter discusses views of automotive trainees about whether or not they believed their training was directed appropriately towards work within the automotive industry of the future. Data was collected from automotive trainees located in Kenya and Australia. Data was obtained by use of questionnaires and analyzed with both quantitative and qualitative foci. The questions asked regarded the emphasis of training, the content of training, the facilities in training and coping with technological change in the workplace. Data were discussed according to three themes on generic skills, adequacy of training to work requirements and training facilities. In both countries, it was found that there is a need for more realignment of training offering to the future industry requirements. It is recommended that a consultative approach should be used in the training programs design with a view to reducing the gap between industry requirements and training offerings.