Beyond Trainee Motivation: Exploring How Workplace Conditions Shape Training Transfer

While instructional training aims to improve teaching in public technical schools, newly trained instructors often face challenges applying new skills at work. Using a basic qualitative design with four newly appointed instructors in Nepal, this study explored how workplace conditions shape post-training skill use. The findings show that while relevant training builds initial motivation and confidence, personal readiness alone cannot sustain long-term teaching changes. When newly trained educators encounter rigid administrative approval bottlenecks, limited workshop tools, heavy workloads, and peer resistance from senior staff, their initial motivation gradually fades. Specifically, this study shows that training transfer operates as an interconnected process over time, in which persistent workplace barriers cause an instructor’s initial enthusiasm to gradually decline into minimal compliance or an intent to resign. To support skill transfer, technical school leadership can apply practical strategies such as combining regular feedback from supervisors with efficient approval procedures for necessary resources, alongside setting up formal teacher networks to support collaborative practice. By showing how supervisor support, administrative rules, and colleague relationships together shape skill use over time, this study emphasizes the importance of supportive workplace conditions following training.