The past decades have seen a growing interest in the influence of goal orientations on transfer of training in professional development programs. Since even optimistic estimates show that less than half of the training content is applied by employees six months after training (Saks & Belcourt, 2006), it is vital to explore new ways of enhancing training effectiveness. One way of doing this is to extend past efforts in researching achievement goal orientations and their effect on training transfer. Goal orientations are tendencies for which individuals engage in task-related behavior (see of Dweck & Leggett’s goal theory, 1988). Transfer of training is the productive use of trained knowledge and skills on the job. The available body of evidence clearly indicates that, among different types of goal orientations, a learning goal orientation has the most positive influence on transfer (Boyce, 2008; Heimbeck et al., 2003; Kozlowski et al., 2003). Trainees with a learning goal orientation (sometimes labeled a task goal, mastery goal, or mastery-approach goal) aim to develop competence or to master tasks. It follows that promoting a learning goal orientation during training has positive consequences for the individual trainee, but also for the organisation in terms of higher returns of investment. To date, however, there is little research on how a learning goal orientation can be instructionally supported as part of  professional training. This gap is unfortunate because it delimits our knowledge on how we can optimally design instruction during training. To overcome this gap, a review of the existing literature was performed to answer the research question: Which instructional design promotes learning goal orientations and transfer in professional training?

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