Designing an effective training program essay

Designing an Effective Training ProgramThe amount of emphasis put on training demonstrates how a company’s development of its human resources are considered significant (Noe ; Colquitt, 2002).  However, as Green (2005) mentioned, in real-life situations a number of companies tend to cut down on training especially during periods of economic challenges such as recessions.  As a means to respond to these challenges and at the same time, maintain the competitiveness of the firm, the design of an effective training programme can be considered as a solution.

The effectiveness of a training program therefore does not only address the training needs of the firm but the resources utilized in the initiative is well-invested. An effective training program has the following properties (Erickson, 2005; Noe ; Colquitt, 2002): the presence of well established goals and objectives (what is the training for and what can be gained from it?); the beneficiaries include the organization and the individuals; and the program works within the means of the organization.  To demonstrate, an example of a development of a training program is presented in the following. A firm presently faces problems in terms of low profits; an identified objective, at this point, is to increase the sales.  This firm does not have enough resources to implement a full-blown program, but a solution is identified through a sales technique its sales department can implement. In this context, an effective training program does not immediately jump to conclusions that training is the answer; in fact, the initial analyses should determine whether training is needed at all.

This should be therefore in-line with the goals of the management (The Training Clinic, 1996).  Should training is needed, the goals and objectives of an effective training program is to address what the firm needs: to increase sales.  However, there are already the limitations caused by limited resources and funding although the sales department identifies the opportunities that can be brought by the sales technique.

Hence, the goal/objective of the training program is: “ To design a specific training set within the established limitations of resources that maximizes the benefits of the sales technique”. From the goals and objectives, the next step is to plan.  The plan is tranlated into a blueprint of the design which also refers to the identification of the approach to the training and the type of training; considerations include seminars, programmed instructions or case studies (Erickson, 2005).  The fundamentals of the design is identified through the identification of the learning objectives, the resources needed (as based on the given limitations), the content of the course (as determined by the specific subject of the sales technique), and the design of the lessons.

From this blueprint, the training is then further developed through a more solid instructional needs, such as audio-visual requirements and manuals.   This shows that the program needs to make use of the right materials and tools that can contribute to the instructional techniques. Implementation is the next step where the training package including the materials, tests and other administrative activities are considered.   During implementation, it is important to establish the support from the management.  From the implementation, evaluation is an important last step in any training design; the evaluation determines and measures the effectiveness of the training because this determines the impact (McNamara, 1997; Noe ; Colquitt, 2002). Based on this specific context, which is also applicable in all cases, an effective training design requires planning and development in the context of the goals and objectives of the organization and the training, in addition to acknowledging the presence of limitations such as minimal resources. ReferencesErickson, R. (2005), How to Design a Training Program For Your Company,       Googobits, Retrieved July 3, 2009 from          http://www.

googobits. com/articles/p0-     2525-how-to-design-a-training-prog ram-for-your-company. htmlGreen, R.

(2005), Effective training programs: how to design in-house training on a     limited budget,  Find Articles, Retrieved July 3, 2009 from              http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0BLL/is_3_22/ai_n15379347McNamara, C. (1997), Systematic Approaches to Training and Development , Free       Management Library, Retrieved July 3, 2009 from        http://www. managementhelp.

org/trng_dev/basics/isd. htmNoe, R. ; Colquitt, J. (2002).

Planning for Training Impact Principles of TrainingEffectiveness.  In K. Krieger (Ed).  Creating, Implementing, and Managing            Effective Training and Development: State-Of-The-Art Lessons for Practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. The Training Clinic (1996), How to design effective training programs , Retrieved         July 3, 2009 from    http://www. thetrainingclinic. com/public_workshops/design_workshop/desig       n. htm;;;