Agency Training Plan (ATP) Resource Kit

Stage1 - Plan

         This stage...

              ..is about laying the ground work for Stage 2.

Lay the groundwork

Ground Work

The planning stage lays the groundwork for an effective ATP process.

Part of Agency Business

Once you have developed and established the various tools as well as agency processes/protocols, the ATP will become streamlined as part of the agency’s usual business.

The planning stage is about creating a supportive environment for the development and implementation of your ATP. This includes:

  • Being clear about the current and future directions of your agency
  • Understanding responsibilities under the Victorian Disability Standards

Clearly identifing the needs of the clients

  • Ensuring job descriptions reflect actual roles and responsibilities
  • Seeking support from management and board for the ATP process and its implementation
  • Creating time and opportunity for considered organisational and individual responses to training needs including preferred ways of learning
  • Ensuring you have clear policy and procedures in areas such as induction, recruitment, OHS, workforce planning
  • Creating the tools for gathering information, that is, training needs analysis (TNA) survey that includes all eligible roles and responsibilities in the agency

How to plan for an effective Training Needs Analysis (TNA)

The following details the actions required to establish an effective ATP process:

  • Re-visit your agency’s vision/mission statement and note areas where action does not match the integrity of the statement. Does it reflect the agency’s directions?
  • Establish how you will obtain the input of staff, management and clients. If your Agency has in place staff development and review, the discussion of training needs will be part of this process. If your agency does not have an SDR process for all staff, it will need to establish one as part of meeting performance indicators for the Management Standard in the Disability Services Self Assessment System. Until then, for the purpose of the ATP process, you could arrange a 30-45 minute interview with each staff member.

Link into Staff Development and Review Process(SDR)

Client Input

Clients can be asked to determine what staff do well and what they could do better as a way to create a discussion about what further skills/knowledge/attitudes staff may need. Staff can also be observed as they work with clients to identify skills, as well as required improvements in knowledge and attitudes.

Management need to be interviewed about their individual training needs in the same way as other staff. Some agencies use external facilitators to do this as it is sometimes awkward for a staff member to be reviewing their manager’s or CEO’s training needs.

Management meetings can be used to discuss organisational training needs and future induction training based on projected staff turnover. Committee of Management can also be asked to identify any changes in direction or policy that could impact on staff development needs.

Training needs analysis survey

Update Job Descriptions

  • Review job descriptions. Some of this work may have been done as part of your agency’s existing staff development and review process. You can use this information to update the job descriptions and have them with you during staff consultations. This will give everyone a clear basis on which to discuss individual training needs.

The job descriptions can be written to reflect the competencies described in the Community Services Training Package (CSTP see page 11 and Appendix 3 and Appendix 2 for sample Job Description).

Develop Training Needs Survey

  • Develop a TNA survey or adapt your current SDR process for guiding participants through a discussion of their individual and organisational training needs.You could also attach the agency’s vision/mission statement to help set the context for discussion.

The survey should reflect the Victorian Disability Service Standards and the benchmarks within the Disability Service Self-Assessment System (see 4.4 Standard 8 - Service Management pp 24-25).

The survey should include:

  • A description of the person’s current role
  • Analysis of the clients’ program plans to map client needs against staff development needs
  • A review of any current or past training
  • Opportunity to discuss current skills/knowledge/attitude relevant to the competencies expected in the job
  • Opportunity to discuss areas where skill/knowledge/attitude needs to be developed to match the expected competencies
  • Opportunity to discuss the agency’s vision/policies that affect their role and the skill/knowledge/attitudes they have and need to gain in order to progress the agency’s vision and policies
  • Preferred learning style and environment - off-site/onsite; mentoring/shadowing; self-paced learning; classroom; action learning project; mix of the above; other
  • Brief description of what is available through the CSTP - Disability Work and benefits in accessing it
  • Agreed prioritising of training needs (based on individual and organisational training priorities as well as budget)

Keep information gathering concise so analysis of data at the end of the interviews is more manageable.

An example of a TNA survey that can be used by agencies for training needs analysis are in Appendix 1.

Link to Community Services Training Package (CSTP)

The CSTP was developed in consultation with all stakeholders in the training and community services sectors across Australia. It is designed to provide nationally accredited qualifications for a range of specialist areas within the field of community services. The specialist field of Disability Work has qualifications from Certificate II to IV, Diploma and Advanced Diploma.

The competencies required to gain the particular qualification are based on the skills, knowledge and attitudes as outlined for each level. If staff enrol in one of these qualifications they should be first assessed against the competencies to determine areas in which they are already competent and those where further training is required.

Previous Experience Recognised

In this way your previous experience, training and knowledge is formally recognised. Where training is recommended, the options for training delivery are flexible and able to be negotiated. These include self-paced learning, action learning, coaching, mentoring as well as the traditional classroom based options.

You can use the competencies described in the CSTP to make it easier for staff to access the qualifications. Assessment of staff competencies toward a nationally accredited Disability Work qualification is much easier if their role is described in the terms of the CSTP

The ATP kit was developed in June 2000. Some information in the kit may have dated but the planning process outlined is still appropriate.