An analysis of human resources development activities conducted in small to medium sized enterprizes (SMES)

Learning continuous throughout our lives and enables us to keep up with social changes and challenge in various contexts such as school and workplace in the form of lifelong learning. Thus employees are obliged to continue to learn to fulfill their duties much more efficiently and to increase their competence. However, school learning should be followed by learning in business which has certain targets and conditions.For continuous professional development both the employees and employers should see lifelong learning as a major concern. The right person for a given job should be trained continuously through appropriate training programs to meet his or her professional needs for future. To achieve this, firstly it is necessary to demonstrate professional standards.In Turkey, excluding the large-scale enterprises, there are too few small businesses which give importance on training or allocate resources for professional development.. Experiencing difficulties to compete in globalized markets, SMEs have really only one way out to survive in the markets, which is employ well-trained people and help them develop their profession. Today, in all enterprises, including SMEs, human resources development departments should be established and they should strive for the development of human resources to achieve their business goals. In order for the SMEs, to place human resources development departments in their new organization chart chambers or other similar professional institutions are expected to study the issue. Yet, it is thought that SMEs do not have the required capacity to identify their training needs as well as evaluate their learning outcomes.The aim of this study is to analyze the human resources development activities conducted in the SMEs. Following issues have been surveyed to identify the general aim of the study.? What kind of methods are employed to assess the training needs of the SMEs?? What kind of training events do the SMEs get involved in to meet the training needs of the human resources?? How are the learning outcomes evaluated in the SMEs?? What are the possible problems encountered in assessing the training needs of human resources in the SMEs?? What are the potential problems encountered during the delivery of the training activities in the SMEs?? What are the possible problems encountered in evaluating the learning outcomes in the SMEs?In this sense, qualitative research method was employed in the study. The data was gathered through semi-structured interview technique. Participants of the study are human resource development staff in 29 SMEs.The study suggested that training activities are conducted in such a way that no perspectives of curriculum development are taken into consideration; no needs assessment study is executed. However, it is found that SMEs send their employees to some programs organized and announced by training suppliers. In addition, it is found that SMEs do not have systematic processes for the assessment of learning outcomes.Finally, it is thought that all these problems in the SMEs result from the lack of human resources development specialist and/or the department in the organization chart.Key words: curriculum development, human resources, training events, training issues, SME