Training Works! - Excerpts from a New Handbook
(November 2003)

Training Works is a publication that is based on the best and latest thinking of professional trainers in the FP/RH area. It resulted from a rigorous process of identifying excellent practices in the various training phases, and includes what the authors believe is the current "state of the art" for training. Training professionals from JHPIEGO, PRIME/TRG, PRIME/IntraHealth, FHI and the Population Leadership Program/Public Health Institute developed these guidelines in collaboration with USAID's Office of Population and Reproductive Health to help strengthen family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) training.

The next series of training articles will excerpt parts of Training Works! What you need to know about managing, designing, delivering, and evaluating group-based training. The full version of the handbook also is available online.

We’ll begin with an overview and performance needs assessment.

Overview

What makes one training experience better than another? Effective training can help providers of family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) services to improve their performance. The Training Works! handbook summarizes the tasks that should be completed at each stage of training to ensure an effective training course. If you carry out these tasks, you will have a high-quality training course. Think of these tasks as standards to be achieved or guidelines to be followed.

The Training Works! handbook will be useful to anyone who has a role in the management, design, delivery, or evaluation of group-based training for healthcare professionals who are currently providing services such as inservice training. You may be a project manager, an instructional designer, a clinical trainer, an evaluation specialist, or a trainer who “does it all.” Or, you simply may be interested in knowing more about training to help you make program decisions or participate in stakeholder meetings. There is something in the handbook for each of you. Also, you will recognize that many of these standards apply to other types of training, such as on-the-job training, distance learning courses, and computer-assisted learning.

Performance Needs Assessment

There are many factors that affect the performance of healthcare workers. It is often hard to know why healthcare workers are not providing high quality services. A performance needs assessment (PNA) will identify performance gaps or problems and give you the information you need to determine what can be done to improve job performance. A PNA is part of a process called performance improvement that is used to solve performance problems by involving healthcare providers, their facilities, clients, and the community in improving services. 

The purpose of a PNA is to identify performance gaps or problems and determine the most appropriate interventions to improve worker performance. 

These are the steps in conducting a PNA: 

• Define desired performance. Ask, “What is the healthcare provider expected to do?” “How well is the provider expected to perform?” “Under what conditions?” “With what frequency?”
• Describe actual performance. Focus on the performance of an individual or a group. The difference between the desired performance and the actual performance is called the performance gap.
• Conduct a root cause analysis to find out why there is a performance gap. Gather information from as many people as possible who come in contact with the healthcare service (e.g., providers, supervisors, clients, community members).
• Select the appropriate intervention(s) to improve performance. If the cause of poor performance is deficient knowledge or skills, training is the appropriate intervention.

The information collected in the PNA will be useful for all stages of training. The training manager can use the information to guide the design, delivery, and evaluation of training. The training designer needs to know what knowledge and skills are required to improve performance on the job. The trainer will use the information to help learners achieve the course objectives. The training evaluator must understand the work environment to determine whether training has closed the performance gap.

Essential Tasks

Within each stage, there are essential tasks to be completed to progress. Below is a list of the essential tasks. A description of the tasks and “tips” to help put the tasks into action will be covered in subsequent articles. 

Managing Training

• Confirm that the performance needs assessment has been conducted and that training will close the performance gap 
• Plan, acquire, and manage resources to achieve training outcomes 
• Select the training design team 
• Establish a monitoring and evaluation strategy 
• Manage training logistics 
• Communicate with learners and their supervisors before training 
• Provide followup support for learners and supervisors after training

Designing Training

• Verify the performance gap and goal of training 
• Gather background information about the learners and identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to acquire 
• Identify content resources 
• Write the learning objectives 
• Develop the training plan 
• Develop or adapt training materials 
• Develop or adapt evaluation instruments

Delivering Training

• Establish and maintain credibility 
• Conduct training in a responsive and collaborative way 
• Create a learning environment where participants feel comfortable and safe. 
• Provide supportive feedback 
• Use effective communication and presentation skills 
• Use effective facilitation skills 
• Provide opportunities for practical application of knowledge and skills 
• Monitor the process of training and make adjustments, as needed

Evaluating Training

• Determine learners’ satisfaction with training. 
• Determine whether learners have met the learning objectives by giving and scoring knowledge evaluations 
• Determine whether learners have met the learning objectives by giving and scoring skill evaluations 
• Improve training using information from the knowledge and skill evaluations 
• Monitor and evaluate performance on the job. 
• Determine the effectiveness of training as an intervention to improve performance

For more information about alternative learning methods, contact Rick Sullivan at repro@jhpiego.net 

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