Skill is the ability that has been acquired by training. In other way skill is the ability to produce solutions in some problem domain e.g. “the skills of the well trained boxer”.

Why do skill Development?
Many times companies recruits fresher or people belonging to some other organization. These people are new to the processes and working culture of particular company. To make such people able to handle new kind of work and culture training is required. i.e. skills development is necessary for the development of business and individuals in an organization.
Different type of employees need different type of training, e.g.

• People working in call centers need training on communication skills.
• Marketing people need training on communication, company culture, product, etc.
• Managers and management level employees need training on leadership.
• Workers in mechanical workshop need skills to handle mechanical machines.

So we can say, skill is a learned capacity or talent to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills.

Skills Development Model

Theory - is the explanation of the process. E.g. explaining how the lathe machine works.

Practice - Some skills development requires few minutes where as some required hours of practice. Initially some work takes more time to learn, but as an employee keep on practicing, he/she starts working more efficiently. Employee must practice to become good in particular work.

From During My MBA

Motivation – Some employees are internally motivated to perform well but this is not the case with all. For motivation management have to keep on motivating employees to develop skills.

Feedback - In the process of skills development, an employee should get feedback from superior about the skills. This allows an employee to correct his/her working skill.

Mastery – Once employee became fully familiar with a particular process then he/she starts becoming master in that particular skill and they can become superior of other new employees.

Types of skills
There are a number of different types of skills:

• Cognitive - or intellectual skills that require thought processes
• Perceptual - interpretation of presented information
• Motor - movement and muscle control
• Perceptual motor - involve the thought, interpretation and movement skills

How do we teach a new skill?

The teaching of a new skill can be achieved by various methods:

• Verbal instructions
• Demonstration
• Video
• Diagrams
• Photo sequences

The Learning Phases - Fitts & Posner
Fitts and Posner (1967) suggested that the learning process is sequential and that we move through specific phases as we learn. There are three stages to learning a new skill:

• Cognitive phase - Identification and development of the component parts of the skill - involves formation of a mental picture of the skill

• Associative phase - Linking the component parts into a smooth action - involves practicing the skill and using feedback to perfect the skill

• Autonomous phase - Developing the learned skill so that it becomes automatic - involves little or no conscious thought or attention whilst performing the skill - not all performers reach this stage

The leaning of physical skills requires the relevant movements to be assembled, component by component, using feedback to shape and polish them into a smooth action. Rehearsal of the skill must be done regularly and correctly.

Schmidt's Schema Theory
Schmidt's theory (1975) was based on the view that actions are not stored rather we refer to abstract relationships or rules about movement. Schmidt's schema is based on the theory that that every time a movement is conducted four pieces of information are gathered:

• the initial conditions - starting point
• certain aspects of the motor action - how fast, how high
• the results of the action - success or failure
• the sensory consequences of the action - how it felt

Relationships between these items of information are used to construct a recall schema and a recognition schema. The Recall schema is based on initial conditions and the results and is used to generate a motor program to address a new goal. The recognition schema is based on sensory actions and the outcome.

Adam's Closed Loop Theory
Adam's theory (1971) has two elements:

• Perceptual trace - a reference model acquired through practice
• Memory trace - responsible for initiating the movement

The key feature of this theory is the role of feedback.

• Analyze the reference model actions, the result of those actions and the desired goals
• Refine the reference model to produce the required actions to achieve the desired goals