Program Design

 Program Design

• Introduction of Training Program Design
• The decision to Purchase or Design a Training
• The Training Content
• The Trainer
• Selecting the Trainees
• Training Methods
• Training Materials and Equipments
• The Training Site
• Scheduling the Training program
• The Lesson Plan
• Delivery of the Training Program

Program Design:-

The training and development process is the actual design of training programs. The needs analysis and training objectives to produce a blueprint for the design of a training program or course. Proper program design is important for four reasons.

First, a competently prepared training plan will make the task of competing for funding easier.

Second, a good plan will enable training activity to be directed toward real training problems, not symptoms of problems.

Third, the planning document will ensure that the problems under consideration can be solved by training and not some other intervention or method.

Fourth, good planning leads to enhanced credibility with line managers. All of these factors combined will help the training department implement and deliver sound training programs. 

 

Introduction to training Program Design:-

The design of a training program involves several phases. These phases are sequential, with the output of one phase becoming the input to the next. The first two of these phases

·       Needs analysis and

·       Setting objectives.

At this point in the training and development process, a number of critical activities and decisions need to be made that revolve around transforming training objectives into an actual training program.

          In particular, the following issues and activities need to be addressed during the program design stages:

ü Decide whether to purchase or design a training program

ü Determine the training content

ü Decide on a trainer for the program

ü Select the trainees to attend the program

ü Decide on the training methods

ü Identify the required training materials and equipment

ü Choose a training site

ü Schedule the training program

ü Prepare a lesson plan

ü Deliver the training program

The Decision of Purchase or Design a Training Program:

Once it has been determined that a training program is an appropriate course of action to manage a performance problem, the human resource professional faces a make or buy decision. Many private training companies and consultants offer a broad selection of courses on general topics.

The Decision to Purchase or Design a Training Program:

Once it has been determined that a training program is an appropriate course of action to mange a performance problem, the human resource professional faces a make or buy decision. Many private training companies and consultants offer an extensive array of courses on general topics. In many cases, it is more economical for an organization to purchase these materials, packaged in professional formats, than to develop the materials themselves, which in many cases will be used only once or twice.

          The advantages of packaged programs are high quality, immediate delivery, ancillary services, the potential to customize the package to the organization, benefits from others implementation experience, extensive testing, and often less expense than internally developed programs.

          Training programs developed internally by an organization also have some advantages including security and confidentiality, use of the organization expertise, understanding of the specific target audience and organization, and the pride and credibility of having a customized program.

          Given the pros and cons of both alternatives, how does a training manager decide to purchase or design a training program? Obviously, one of the most important factors to consider is the cost of each alternative. A cost benefit analysis would be necessary to determine the best option. Some types of training programs will be much more costly to design than to purchase. However, there are other factors that should also be considered in addition to cost.

          Time is also a factor in terms of how soon the organization wants to begin training. Given the amount of time required to design a new training program, if there is a need or desire to begin training as soon as possible than the organization will need to purchase a training programs. In effect, the sooner that the organization wants to begin training the less likely there will be sufficient time to design a new training program.

          Another important consideration is the number of employees who will need to be trained and the extent to which future employees will also receive training. If a relatively small number of employees require training, then it is probably not worthwhile to design an entire training program. However, if a large number of current employees need to receive training as well as future employees, then designing a new training program from scratch makes more sense. In other words, to the extent that the training program will be used for many employees in both the sort and long term, a decision to design the program is more favorable. 

 

The Training Content:

Once a decision has been made to design a training program, decisions must be made about the training content. This is a crucial stage as one wants to be sure that the training content matches the training needs and objectives. The importance of this has been noted Campbell who states, “by far the highest priority question for designers, user, and investigators of training is, what is to be learned? That is, what (specifically) should a training program try to accomplish, and what should the training content be?”

          You should have a good idea of the nature of the training content from the needs assessment and the training objectives. This is another reason why it is so important to conduct a thorough needs assessment prior to designing a training program. As well, employee’s current levels of knowledge and skills can be compared to the organization’s desired levels as indicated by the performance goals or objectives. The gap between the two represents the organization’s training needs and determines the precise content of the training course.

          However, even if one knows, for example, those employees have insufficient knowledge of how to conduct structured employment interviews; it still remains to be determined what content will be used in the training program. That is, we still need to translate training objectives into tainting content and to also determine the sequence in which the content will be learned. It is not sufficient to simply say that the training content should focus on structured interviewing.

          One of the most common and effective ways to identify training content is to consult with subject-matter experts who are knowledgeable in a particular area and know the topic well enough that they can specify the raining content. To determine the content of a training program to fulfill the training objective regarding structured employment interviews, one can consult with human resource professionals, consultants, or professors. It is also possible that some members of the organization’s human resource department will have some knowledge about structured employment interviews. On the basis of the subject-matter experts judgments one can identify the content required to achieve the training objective.

          A second source of training content is the research and theory that can be found in the academic and practitioner literature. In the case of structured employment interviews, there are dozens of articles and research papers on how to design and conduct structured interviews.

          A third possibility would be topurchase an off the shelf training program on structured employment interviews. This would likely include a lesson plan, an instructor’s guide, training materials and exercises, and perhaps a videotape. Whichever of those sources are used, it is important to realize that ultimately a judgment will have to be made about what content will best fulfill the training needs and objectives? This decision will not always be easy.

Identified the following 15 ways that employment interviews can be structured to enhance the content and evaluation process of the interview:

1.    Base questions on a job analysis.

2.    Ask exactly the same questions of each candidate.

3.    Limit prompting, follow-up questions, and elaboration on questions.

4.    Use better types of questions.

5.    Use longer interviews or more questions.

6.    Control ancillary information.

7.    Do not allow questions from candidates until after the interview.

8.    Rate each answer or use multiple scales.

9.    Use detailed anchored rating scales.

10.     Take detailed notes.

11.     Use multiple interviewers.

12.     Use same interviewers across all candidates.

13.     Do not discuss candidates or answers with other interviewers.

14.     Provide extensive interviewing training.

15.     Use statistical rather than clinical prediction.

In particular, trainees will be trained to conduct structured employment interviews according to the following learning behaviors:

1.    Ask exactly the same questions of each candidate.

2.    Limit prompting, follow-up questioning, and elaboration on questions.

3.    Use experience based interview questions.

4.    Do not allow questions from candidates until after the interview.

5.    Rate each interview answer using the scales for each question.

6.    Take detailed notes.

7.    Use statistical rather than clinical prediction.