Employees often want training in areas that are irrelevant to their jobs or inconsistent with organizational objectives. A well-designed questionnaire can weed out training wants to uncover an employee's true training needs. (Author)

Six steps to successful needs analysis are (1) collect information about the organization, (2) identify potential training opportunities, (3) conduct a performance audit, (4) select and test content areas, (5) determine the required skills, knowledge, and abilities, and (6) verify this information against the organization's issues and goals. (SK)

The author argues that curriculum design requires viewing the whole fabric of management training in its totality; individual training programs are created from this perspective. The challenge in this case is to build a coherent plan that will provide structure and unity to the whole management training program. (Author/SSH)

Trainers interested in enhancing computer-assisted instruction with graphics should ask (1) What are the training objectives? (2) What technologies serve these purposes? and (3) What is the most cost-effective alternative? (SK)

To avoid "crisis training" and gain management support, professional trainers should develop a comprehensive training policy that includes a mission statement, goals and objectives, a management system, needs assessment, costs, record-keeping method, and evaluation mechanism. (SK)

A strategic planning model for organizational effectiveness is built around the following elements: mission, key results, critical issues, goals, objectives, and strategies. Keeping the planning model simple and expectations reasonable increases chances for success. (JOW)

This article identifies three types of training--cognitive, psychomotor, and affective--and states that a training which ignores one of these types of training may be deficient. The author cites an unfortunate parachuting program that neglected to include psychomotor skills. (JB)

Twenty training professionals in different occupational groups rated eight steps in the training process from development to execution to evaluation. Accountability proved to be a key factor in training success, while needs assessment is usually not well executed. (SK)

It is possible that the emphasis on increased accountability in the training function may drive out programs that cannot demonstrate quantitative, measurable improvements in performance or results. Five levels of issues in training evaluation are (1) work versus perk; (2) substantive versus symbolic; (3) external versus internal; (4) behaviors…

Outlines problem-solving steps and describes force-field analysis as a technique for diagnosing human resource development/training problems and needs. (SK)

The 1979 American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) President, Jan Margolis, discusses the organization's challenges and role. Identifies 1979-80 ASTD goals which cluster in four areas: representation and leadership in the human resource field, professionalism, member and leadership development, and maintaining a healthy organization.…

Offers a step-by-step guide to course design and development. Includes information on design basics, underlying objectives, course description, evaluation, standards, recordkeeping, and administration. (JOW)

Describes a survey of 43 Fortune 500 industrial corporations on management training. Results include the finding that evaluation of training programs is not up to the desired standard. (CH)

This article explains a performance-oriented approach to outlining technical training needs. The performance improvement cycle is discussed and the three main activities in that cycle are described. They include need detection, task identification, and collection of task performance data. (CT)

Focusing on training as it relates to adult education, this article provides three definitions of adult education and discusses three categories of adult educators. It is noted that trainers work with people who see themselves essentially as adults, and in that sense trainers are adult educators. (LRA)