WHAT IS A LEARNING NEEDS ASSESSMENT (LNA)?
It’s an understanding of what GN4.3 participants need in terms of knowledge, skills and capabilities to work efficiently and effectively within the project. LNA is a conversation with project WPLs/TLs when GÉANT Learning and Development team (GLAD) builds a holistic picture of the context of work delivered and discusses possible training solutions.
It is important to look into the future through the LNA lens, and think What is it that we need to be able to do in one- or two-year’s time? It is essential for the training to be forward looking to deliver skills in time when they are actually required. Furthermore, the speed of change and dynamics of the industry necessitate us to select and prioritise training activities carefully to make sure we stay ahead of the game.
WHICH ARE THE TRAINING ACTIVITIES PEOPLE CAN ATTEND?
All training activities are open to all GN4.3 project members on a first come, served basis, following the GN4.3 Approval process. The training activities will be published on the https://learning.geant.org/ website. The participation in courses is an entirely voluntary process, we do not ‘send’ people on a course. One must also remember that there are many ways to help people learn, some do not need to wait for the annual Learning Programme to be published.
WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF WORK PACKAGE AND TASK LEADERS VERSUS THOSE OF GLAD in TRAINING?
As a team leader you have the most detailed picture of your team and their training needs. Most importantly, you have access to the daily work of your activity. GLAD is there to build on this experience of the work context and help guide the professional development of your team in the way that is most helpful. GLAD is also there to ensure that training is not disruptive but rather organic and fits well with what is happening on the shop floor. In addition, GLAD is also able to obtain economies of scale and to organise comprehensive learning solutions when combining the requests from the whole project.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TRAINING IS NEEDED?
All starts with good communication and good dialogue with your team members. It goes into observations of what how the work happens, taking special note of bottlenecks and problems that arise. In the learning world, bottleneck can be indicative of the lack of knowledge, skill or awareness, and thus creating pathways to the learning opportunities. However, one must remember that not all problems are the learning problems and/or can be resolved through a learning solution.
It is also important to think of industry trends and what is happening around us. This is often an indicator of what we might want to start doing or learn how to do better.
Check out the Guiding Guestions we put together to help gain understanding of training needs.
HOW WILL TRAINING REQUESTS BE PRIORITISED?
Based on the outcomes of the LNA, GLAD will determine if all of the training requests can be completed. There are two categories: Must Have and Nice to haves. ‘Must haves’ are those that are outlines in the Technical Annex and they will be executed. The ‘Nice to haves’ will be executed only if there is the support of learners and resources.
In case of a great number of completing requests, the following criterial will be applied to further facilitate the selection:
- economies of scale, gaining financial benefits through larger numbers. (Can training requests be grouped to obtain the larger scale?)
- strategic importance and industry benchmarking. (What are the long-term investments?)
- viable alternatives. (Are there alternatives such as online courses?, etc)
WHICH LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE?
Many training needs can be met continuously using local resources at a little cost, for example:
- In-house developed resources (using local experts and solutions available inside the community)
- Externally available (low cost) resources
- Freely available: webinars, blogs and knowledge centres