This half-day session is of value for anyone interested in ensuring that training resources are spent on providing the right training, for the right people, with the right return. Today's training environment has changed. There is increased emphasis on performance management. We are faced with escalating costs and diminishing budgets. Yet, we are equally challenged to meet the on going needs for updated knowledge and skills to succeed in our demanding and challenging work environments. Organizations must therefore focus valuable financial and human resources on training that will produce the necessary skills and performance abilities. A training needs assessment is the tool to ensure these effective training efforts.

This session will address the factors to be considered in planning and conducting a needs assessment; ways to determine the scope, target population and complexity of the assessment, and strategies for analyzing collected data to define when and what training materials for conducting a cost-effective, data-based training needs assessment.

No prerequisite or advanced preparation required.

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• Needs assessment: Today's concepts, definitions, and trends
• Shapes, sizes, and purposes of needs assessment
• Industry needs assessment models
• Four primary data gathering methods
• Informal strategies for data collection
• Selecting the right methods to gather the right data
• Ten key questions to ask
• Four ways to analyze data
• Identifying performance problems
• Applying the gap theory: Discrepancies between current and preferred states
• Assessment results: When is training indicated? When is not?
• Researching possible performance solutions
• Translating assessment results into viable training programs
• Dealing with politics

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Trainers, managers, human resource development generalists, and technical specialists who have input or make decisions about training. An opportunity to learn how to ensure that training meets relevant goals and needs, with a focus on the ends to be attained.

Janet Niblock

Janet Niblock is currently the Executive Director of George Mason University's Office of Continuing and Professional Education. Her Master of Arts in adult education and human resources from Virginia Tech is coupled with over thirty years of experience in adult education, training and development.

Her earlier years focused on teaching and technical training delivered through the State of Maryland's adult education programs and two correctional institutions as well as a wide range of private and public organizations. Ms. Niblock's positions have included: Director of Montgomery County Adult Education; Director of Education at Computer Learning Center; and Grant Manager for a five-year project to institute state-wide adult education competitive based education program.

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