Conference Update "Training: Best Practices, Lessons Learned and Future Directions"
(June 2002)

In collaboration with the Office of Population and Reproductive Health and a number of USAID Cooperating Agencies (CAs), JHPIEGO sponsored a conference in Washington, D.C., from 22-23 May 2002, entitled "Training: Best Practices, Lessons Learned and Future Directions." Approximately 180 trainers, instructional designers, materials developers, facilitators and evaluators representing 16 countries and nearly 30 CAs and other institutions participated in the interactive 2-day conference.

Conference Purpose and Structure

Opening remarks provided by Margaret Neuse (Director, Office of Population and Reproductive Health, USAID) and Maria Busquets (Acting Chief, Communications, Management and Training Division, USAID) established the purpose and tone of the conference. In her introduction, Ms. Busquets stated that the guiding principle of the conference was to "listen, to explore and to discuss [training] interventions that have worked and yielded evidence-based results." Ms. Neuse spoke about the future of training, and remarked, "There are many changes taking place affecting training in the service delivery settings in which we work." She challenged participants to always "consider best practices in light of these changes and adopt and adapt those that are going to have the greatest performance improvement impact, assess them very vigorously, and come together like this to share what we've learned."

The conference was divided into general and concurrent sessions. The three general sessions focused on the following broad topics:

• Getting Your Training Used: Overcoming the Problem of Inert Knowledge (Dr. Geno Schnell, Director of Organization Development and Diversity, Johns Hopkins University)
• Transfer of Learning: Ensuring the Performance Payoff (Dr. Mary Broad, performance improvement, transfer of learning, and strategic planning consultant)
• Training in the 21st Century: Blending Options and Opportunities (Karen Mantyla, Certified Distance Educator)

In the 30 concurrent sessions, participants examined and discussed aspects of effective training applied in a variety of formats across a broad range of content areas. Morning and afternoon concurrent sessions were 90 minutes in length, and each featured a best practice, lesson learned or future direction for discussion.

For a complete list of session topics, please see: http://www.jhpiego.org/bpconf/schedule.htm

Feedback and Next Steps

Feedback received from participants was complimentary and constructive, and will be most useful in the planning of future training conferences. Many participants commented that the conference was well organized and managed, with an excellent variety of topics. Participants also appreciated the many opportunities for sharing and "networking" with colleagues, and the informal and collegial atmosphere of the sessions. A CD-ROM containing conference materials will be available by late June.

For more information, please contact Rick Sullivan at rsullivan@jhpiego.net.

Go to JHPIEGO TrainerNews