Cognitive ability and personality predictors of training program skill acquisition and job performance

Two important issues in the training process concern (1) the relative impac t of cognitive ability and personality traits on the ability to acquire ski lls, and (2) whether training skill acquisition predicts subsequent job per formance. We used a sample of 9,793 trainees to address these questions and were able to compare those who succeeded on the job with those who did not succeed on the job. We found that some personality factors positively corr elate with skill acquisition and that skill acquisition can predict the lev el of subsequent job performance.