Training needs – What do they need
provider. If the training need is recognised internally within the organisa- tion, it might have arisen as a result of a recommendation from an in- vestigation into some sort of accident or incident. Alternatively, it could arise because of a change in normal working practices. This might be as a result of the introduction of some new equipment or changes in standard procedures or works instructions. Training needs can be identified during individual’s annual personal appraisals or from personal requests. Finally, it may be that the organisation has done detailed training needs analyses for each job which identify what competencies are required for each job and where the gaps lie between the required competencies and those exhibited by the job holder. So, to summarise, the training need can arise from:
• Mandatory training requirements laid down by law
• New recruitment
• Changes in personnel responsible for the activity
• Recommendations arising from an incident
• Changes to procedures and practices
• Introduction of new or changed equipment
• Recommendations from annual appraisals
• Training needs analyses
• Changes in external regulation or standards
• Bad habits and shortcuts
Training is required when there is both a need and where the individual does not currently have the competencies to fulfil that need. Having identified the requirement for each job role or individual, this can then be compared to the current skills and knowledge that each person in that role has. An individual’s current skills can be identified in a number of ways and could arise from:
• Documented proof of previous training (e.g. Certificates, examination results, etc.)
• Existing training records
• Discussion with the individual
• Proven track record
• Appraisal discussions
• Knowledge checks
When identifying need, an important issue that a tutor should be aware of, is that sometimes the “need” is not actually a training problem. It may well be that the student already knows the right way to do something but failure to respond in a safe and appropriate manner is caused by other factors. For example, the student has not been provided with the right tools, or perhaps there is a disciplinary issue. The tutor may need to alert management to the fact that they will have to address the factors that are preventing people from following the process or procedure. This is not an
easy thing to do, but it is an ethical responsibility to at least give man- agement information.
5.2 KNOWLEDGE CHECKS
Once the requirements of a particular role or task are identified, the knowledge check is produced by creating a series of questions that are clearly related to the task and that give the participants the opportunity to demonstrate their competencies. The questions should not be trivial but be reasonably challenging. The knowledge check should not try and trick the participants. Remember that the objective is only to get an understanding of the current knowledge and skill level of the participant and is not about finding fault or identifying weaknesses.
Once the current knowledge level of an employee is known, that can be compared with the skill requirement for the job. If there is a gap between the two, then a training need has been identified and arrangements should be put in place to satisfy this need. The use of Training Needs Analysis is a very important part in customising your training and making it relevant to the individual and economically beneficial to the organisation.
If the knowledge gained from training cannot be applied almost im- mediately, then it is likely that the trainees will not understand its relevance and they will have forgotten what they have learned before the opportunity arises to practice their new skills. It is also very difficult to establish com- petence if the training is not followed quite quickly with some monitored application of the training leading to validation.
5.3 TRAINING LEVELS
Once a clear training need has been established, then it is important to establish at what level the training is required before it can be planned and implemented. In the work environment, there are usually three broad knowledge levels to consider. These are:
Level
SPECIALIST A specialist has an in-depth knowledge of the subject at an expert level
COMPETENCE Competence is the ability to carry out a task to an effective standard. To achieve competence requires the right level of knowledge, understanding and skill, and a professional attitude.
AWARENESS Awareness is general familiarity, of a subject
It is very important to establish this criterion at a very early stage, as the time commitment, number of trainees, scope and tutor skills will differ markedly if it is “Awareness” level as opposed to “Specialist” level training. If we consider the situation in the average factory, not everyone needs to have detailed knowledge of every piece of legislation that is re- levant to that facility. Typically, that detailed knowledge may be re- stricted to two or three people on the site. However, everyone will need to be aware of the bits of legislation that are relevant to their particular role.
In these circ*mstances, the person with the specialist knowledge should interpret that for everyone else and make sure that the relevant require- ments are incorporated into the local procedures and instructions. Very often detailed regulatory knowledge is held within the Health and Safety Department, and these individuals will need to be trained and educated to a very high level in the details of regulatory requirements. This requires detailed “specialist” level training.
Typically, members of management are responsible for ensuring overall compliance with health and safety regulations. These individuals do not need to be health and safety specialists, but they need to know enough in order to be competent managers. A competent manager needs to know what his team should be doing and to know enough to recognise when they are not complying with the rules. Furthermore, he or she should be suffi- ciently knowledgeable to recognise the limitations in their own knowledge and when to seek further specialist help. The most dangerous type of manager or worker is the one who doesn’t know when to stop. The pro- blem is that these people “Don’t know what they don’t know!” In these circ*mstances, these people need to be taught sufficient to ensure that they remain competent.
The third level of training is that of “Awareness”. This level will tend to apply quite widely across the workforce, but it is done in much less detail than with the “Competence” and “Specialist” levels. This is the level of health and safety training that most people will experience for much of the time at work. Awareness training is the most challenging in terms of trainee engagement. Specialists are largely self-motivated and frequently are re- sponsible for identifying their own shortcomings and the subsequent need for additional training. Likewise, managers recognise that in order to pass on their knowledge to their teams, they need to be competent and under- stand the subject themselves. In the case of the large raft of “Awareness”
training, the trainees will largely see this as being imposed by management and so they are often initially attending this with a rather negative attitude.
This provides a particular challenge to the tutor, who needs to get the trainees engaged and interested in the subject. This is especially a problem with health and safety training. It is not like task training, where the in-dividual needs to pay attention in order to learn how to do their job. Health and safety training is often seen as boring and statements of the obvious or not directly relevant to one individual’s performance at work. The challenge
that most health and safety tutors will face is likely to be in the area of
“Awareness” training.
5.4 RECORDS
Maintaining up-to-date training records is a very important part of the process of any individual’s competency assurance and is a management responsibility. It may seem like an unnecessarily bureaucratic task, but if something goes wrong, the first thing that the regulatory inspector will ask is to see the training records. If the records are incomplete, the inspector may initially assume that the individual was untrained, and it will be up to the management team to try and prove otherwise. Records are particularly important when it comes to proving that the employee had been told the right way to do something and on the occasion under investigation, he or she had not followed their training.
Training records not only need to record the fact that training was completed on a particular date, but they should also be capable of cross- referencing to the content of the training, so that the details can be estab- lished of exactly what the individual was trained to do and how it should be done safely.
Training records are an invaluable part of any training needs analysis.
Training Needs Checklist
I. Is there a real need – i.e “why are we doing the training”? Is it because of:
• Mandatory training requirements laid down by law
• New recruitment
• Changes in personnel responsible for the activity
• Recommendations arising from an incident
• Changes to procedures and practices
• Introduction of new or changed equipment
• Recommendations from annual appraisals
• Training needs analyses
• Changes in external regulation or standards
• Bad habits and shortcuts II. What level of training is required?
• Awareness
• Competence
• Specialist
III. Establish the current level of knowledge by:
• Documented proof of previous training (e.g. certificates, examina- tion results, etc.)
• Existing training records
• Discussion with the individual
• Proven track record
• Appraisal discussions IV. Ensure good records are kept
