 In this topic and the subsequent ones we are going to discuss about international training and development. You know that training and development is a very important aspect of human resource management and it is targeted towards improving the skills, abilities and knowledge of human resource which is currently employed with the organization and to achieve the current human resource needs as well as the future human resource needs of the organization. So when we talk about international training, international training is a complex system of training and development in which the organization wants to develop an international pool of skills, abilities and knowledge. It wants to develop an international human capital in its organization and therefore it is something which includes many more activities than domestic training and development includes. So let's take a look at what is international training and development and what are its various different features. One very important aspect of international training and development is that international assignments themselves, they are a tool for training. How? Let's take a look. International assignments are a tool for training and development. How? Number one, expatriates, they are trainers themselves. Expatriates, we have discussed it in previous chapters in previous topics that people from the parent country, from the headquarter are sent to the host country to transfer knowledge, skills and abilities. Knowledge, skills and abilities which are not available or not present in the host country, they are fulfilled by people coming from the parent country. So the multinationals are sent to the host country from their headquarters so that they can teach the host country. So basically expatriates have a major role, they are trainers, they transfer skills and abilities to host country nationals. So this is a part of knowledge and competence transfer process and they are expected to help train and develop host country nationals so that host country nationals are able to run the business independently. So this is one aspect how international assignment itself is a training and development tool. So when you send people from your parent country to the host country, you are actually transferring the skills, abilities and knowledge to the people who are in the host country and do not have those particular skills, abilities and knowledge. Then international assignments are a tool for training and development because expatriates ensure adoption. Why you send expatriates to host country locations? You send them so that host country systems, host country nationals as well as the organization, they can adopt the systems and processes how things are done. So you send people, you send expatriates to establish the systems for the multinational subsidiary. And the host country nationals, they are supposed to adopt those systems which expatriates are supposed to establish in that particular location. And then they monitor the host country nationals performance according to the systems that they have set, according to the organizational structure that they have made, the systems that they have set, the rules and regulations that they have established, the machinery and processes that they have established, they make sure that things they are done according to the systems that they have established. So when they do that, they are actually training and developing staff in the host country national. Then another aspect of the fact that international assignments are training and development tool is that expatriates, they are management under development. So when expatriates, they are sent for, even if they are sent for filling a position and not for anything else, they get an exposure of different type. So this type of job rotation that leads to a broader perspective, they are able to look at things in a broader perspective. They can understand various different cultural aspects. They can understand that only one way of doing things is not correct. People in different parts of the world, different locations, they may be doing things in different ways. And every way has got its own advantages and disadvantages. So this is something which enhances their perspective and therefore develops them as individuals. And therefore the expatriates which are sent to international assignments, they become global operators and therefore an international pool of global operators is developed through this system of international assignments. So international assignment giving people international assignments is itself a training and development tool. Now let's take a look at the process of international training and development. So you would maybe remembering from the previous topics that recruitment and selection is done for international assignments. Many times the recruitment is done, it is in-house recruitment but sometimes external recruitment also takes place. So that is why you can see the dotted lines between the international team and the recruitment and selection box. So it is possible that internal selection has taken place and already a person who is working in an international team is selected for an international assignment. But many times the external recruitment is also done. So after recruitment and selection, the next step is training. And in training, the first aspect of training for international assignment is pre-departure training. And pre-departure training is something which happens before the international assignment starts. So you can see that the next box which follows the pre-departure training is international assignment itself. And then the international assignments, they actually play a dual role. They are used to develop people and then development also happens through international assignments. And then this training and development process, it combines together to build an international team of global operators which have a global vision and they are people who can ideally think globally and act locally. So this is the basic objective and this is the basic process of international training and development process.