Training Management
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Training Management
Training Management is the concept of keeping track of training/schooling that people have taken or will need to take. Most ministries that need training management will agree on some components that need to be tracked, but how they should be tracked and what the system needs to integrate with change dramatically.
Examples of training
Training for career missionaries
Some ministries require their missionaries to have certain training. For example, "using the Internet securely" or "How to raise support." When a new course is given, or when the content of the course is changed dramatically, the ministry may want to require all missionaries on the field to take the course. When a missionary returns to the home office, they can look up on the system to see what the missionary needs a refresher on.
Training for short-term missions
Many organizations specialize in short-term missions. Many people who go on short-term missions do repeat trips. The ministry may require specific pre-trip training to occur, but if it is properly tracked, the person going on the trip does not need to take the same courses every time they go on a trip.
Optional Training
Some organizations wish to track optional training that their staff could have. For example, an organization might keep track of the ICCM conference for their computer people, or training in non-profit finances for their finance people.
Skill-set training
Some organizations simply wish to have a list of all the training their staff has had. Sometimes this list contains who paid for the training (the mission will pay for 4 staff members to be trained in something each year)
Things needing to be tracked
Not all of these are required by all ministries wanting to track training.
- Students
- Student Grades
- Student Classes Needed
- Teachers
- Classes
- Class prerequisites
- Class grades
- Class Homework
- Class Materials
- Class Schedule (hours taught)
- Class Schedule (Years the course is taught)
Integration
What makes training management extremely complex is that often times the mission wants to integrate it with their donor or missionary tracking system. Donors, missionaries, home-office staff, short-term missionaries, and many others may end up being the recipients or givers of the training. And the training system most organizations wish to have would integrate with their current data systems. This complexity is one of the reasons most organizations do not have the Training Management tools they desire to have.
Implementation
Most organizations that have a form of Training Management have either purchased a data system that has one built in, or have built it themselves. If they built it themselves, then it usually is a completely separate entity from their primary data system.