3 Responses

1. Tracking training
   Kelly
   Although the principles are braodly the same the practices vary enormously from one organisation to another. The main variable is the amount of training activity to be tracked, and that is largely linked to organisational size. Unsurprisingly, things tend to be more systemised and elaborate in larger orgainsations. Also important is the proportion done in-house versus external, the mix of methods (elearning is often tracked seperately; mentoring is often not tracked) and the degree of sophistication demanded by the business.
   We have our own software (written in Oracle) that tracks pretty much eveything – you would be welcome to come and see if you don’t mind travelling to Sunningdale.
   The basics are who attended which programmes; what training has run, where and with what numbers; costs; and level 1 evaluation results. The key is being able to interegate the data in ways that help you manage the function more effectively (eg looking at patterns of booking build up so you can match your marketing, room bookings, etc. to what is happening in the business).
   Hope that helps
   Graham

2. What we have done
   We are just in the process of looking for a suitable LMS (Learning Management System) to track training, organise resources, budget, provide MI and automate alot of processes which we currently do manually etc. We have approximatly 1600 staff and realistically we need a system in place which will support the Learning and Development Function and maintain staff training records with the smallest amount of manual intervention. The system we have in place at the moment is called PWA (originally supplied by Northgate). I hope this is of some use to you.

   Thanks

   Sarah

3. Training Organisation
   See http://www.nfpc.co.uk. This is an engineering organisation that offers mainly industry based training and has developed effective tracking systems for competence based training. Contact the director, John Savage who may be able to assist.