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Training Needs Analysis

By Lasa Information Systems Team

While training is generally seen to be a 'good thing', it is all too easy to send someone on an expensive IT training course without being sure that the course is worthwhile, or even that it is the right course for the person.

So how to decide what training needs you have? The answer is to do some training needs analysis.

The starting point is the needs of your organisation (aims, objectives, and work plan) and the needs of the individual worker. The aim is to identify gaps between what staff needs to know in order to do their job, and what they actually know. Go carefully here, you don't want to put people on the defensive and make them feel bad about their lack of IT skills: rather approach the issue as an opportunity to improve staff's knowledge in order that they can do their job quicker and easier.

So how to find out what staff need to know? You can start with a checklist for each bit of software in use, and use a questionnaire to find out where the gaps are. You may have to do a bit of brainstorming to make sure you've covered the main points, don't aim for perfection: the questionnaire itself will uncover things you haven't thought of.

The questionnaires included below are a sample of what can be done. You can adapt this for your own purposes, but do keep it simple. The main aim is to engage staff in discussion about their needs and areas for development.

Having circulated the questionnaire you can correlate the answers and begin to assess the priorities for training and think how to meet these needs. You may send staff on external training courses, you may want to do some more informal in-house training, or bring in a trainer for a tailored course. Whatever option you choose, the results of the TNA will set your goals for the training sessions. It will help select the right course, and set the standard by which you can evaluate its usefulness.

Results analysis and next steps

Using the sample ICT Training Needs Analysis (PDF) , add up the number of ticks in each column and multiply them by the skill rating e.g. ticks in the first column multiply by 0 the next by 1 etc. As the number of questions and therefore total points changes from section to section, the following are somewhat approximate total.

A recommended guide to next steps in your training plan could be:

Users that score up to 15 points in a section (e.g. for General Windows Skills):
An introductory training course would probably benefit this person or some one-to-one training in-house from a "super-user".

Users that score from 16 to 35 points:
An intermediate course might be appropriate.

Users that score over 35 points:
This user is very skilled and might only benefit from an advanced course in the application if this is very relevant to their job e.g. if they are responsible for administrating and developing the organisation's database. They should also be used as a "super-user" to pass on their skills to others in small or one-to-one sessions. They could benefit from a train-the-trainer session.

As ever, the option that works best for you will depend on your needs and available resources. However it is worth thinking about more than just responding to immediate training need. How will your approach help you respond to staff needs long after the training course has become a distant memory? It is worth linking your training strategy to the development of the role of 'super-user' in any important areas of work. One way of doing this is to concentrate on developing the skills of a group of workers who can then train others in the organisation. This is likely to give you more options when, as is always likely, staff need some help on a day to day basis.