To understand its modern definition, it is helpful to briefly recount the history of human resources development. The origins of HRD can be traced to apprenticeship training programs in the eighteenth century. During this time, small shops operated by skilled artisans produced virtually all household goods, such as furniture, clothing, and shoes. Without vocational or technical schools, the shopkeepers had to educate and train their own workers.

For little or no wages, these trainees, or apprentices, learned the craft of their master, usually working in the shop for several years until they became proficient in their trade. Although both apprenticeship programs and vocational schools provided training for skilled workers, very few companies during this time offered training programs for unskilled or semiskilled workers. One of the undesirable by-products of the factory system was the frequent abuse of unskilled workers, including children, who were often subjected to unhealthy working conditions, long hours, and low pay.

Spurred by national attention to these conditions, the human relations movement provided a more complex and realistic understanding of workers as people instead of merely cogs in a factory machine. During the 1960s and 1970s, professional trainers realized that their role extended beyond the classroom. Training and development expanded to include interpersonal skills such as coaching, group process facilitation, and problem solving. The ASTD to renamed itself as the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).