E-LEARNING FOR NEW GRADUATE EMPLOYEES Another Function of e-Learning for New Graduate Employees of Japanese and Korean Companies

摘要

Japanese companies tend to consider that e-learning is important for a reason other than human capital development in new graduate employee training and development programs, namely for improving employee retention. Two remarkable features of the Japanese employment system are the seasonally scheduled hiring of new graduates and company commitment to the T&D programs for new graduate employees before and after their official hiring. Today, large- and medium-sized Japanese companies make their offers to candidates nearly one year prior to their graduation from university or college. Many of these companies also provide various T&D programs, including e-learning, for the potential new graduate employees until their graduation. We call these "pre-entry training" programs. They are distinguished from internship programs in that pre-entry training programs are provided only for those students who are due to be officially hired the next fiscal year. Besides Japanese companies, a number of foreign companies in Japan and some Korean companies provide pre-entry training programs that utilize e-learning. This study examines, based on case studies, the hypothesis that e-learning in the pre-entry training programs for new graduate employees has the function of retention as well as human capital development.