Who, Why, and When?

First you will focus on Steps 1-3; ‘Who, Why, and When?’.

These first three steps are addressed and answered through the Needs Assessment, which gathers information from the future participants as well as the director(s) involved.

As a Trainer considers a request for training, it is important to remember that the main objective of a training session is to change behavior. Effective training leads to a change in behavior which leads to improved quality of services for children and families.

With that in mind you also need to consider any and all time limits to the training session.  As a Trainer you are there to support the change in staff behavior, but you must look at what can be realistically covered in the allotted time.

A needs assessment is a helpful tool that the trainer creates in order to get important information from directors hiring them and from participants that will be attending their training. A needs assessment shapes the training session to ensure that the information trainers provide will be valuable and useful to potential participants.

It is important to disseminate a Needs Assessment in advance to obtain information from directors and prospective participants.

If you follow along in your FET ?handout (pg. 6), you will have a place to document notes regarding the Needs Assessment, rationale, steps and methods related to the needs assessment process.

When creating a training it can be easy to focus your attention on what you think is important or what you like.  However, in doing so, you may not meet the immediate needs of the participants, in which case they will not be motivated to use the new information and skills when they return to their workplace.

If you want to deliver effective training you will need to search for answers to a few key questions regarding what participants need and want to know at this particular time. This would be done through a well-crafted document called a Needs Assessment.

When you do your detective work, there are 3 types of information you will want to collect:

Please hover over the statements below to see more detailed information.

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[ms_column style=”1/3″ align=”left” class=”” id=””][ms_flip_box direction=”horizontal” front_paddings=”15″ front_background=”#1a72bf” front_color=”#ffffff” back_paddings=”15″ back_background=”#1a72bf” back_color=”#ffffff” class=”” id=””]Information about the content of the session|||Why  is content needed?[/ms_flip_box][/ms_column]

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