In today’s high-tech electronics industry, the necessity of a highly skilled labor force is paramount to maintaining a competitive edge. The continued success of a company’s economic growth and expansion relies on their ability to develop skilled production and technical support personnel in order to satisfy this growing demand. The planning and implementation of a quality training program for key employees is an integral step towards developing and maintaining a quality workforce. Although standardized training modules can provide employees with the skills to perform routine operational tasks, a customized training initiative can provide a learning environment with specific objectives that are matched to a company’s unique operation and goals.

A customized training initiative is based on clearly defined skill-based or knowledge-based objectives within a production environment. “Packaged” or “off-the-shelf” training programs may cost less initially but may not adequately address the knowledge deficiencies or operational weaknesses specific to a particular manufacturing environment. Customized training may be less expensive in the long run since it addresses all the specific issues during the development phase of the program and eliminates the need for multiple off-the-shelf programs to address all the requirements. Customized training programs offer a distinct advantage in that they provide:

• Objectives developed with your company’s production environment in mind.
• Training entirely based upon your company’s proven standards, equipment, and practices.
• A one-time cost for development and/or delivery of training.

Approach
The process of developing an effective customized training program is comprehensive and requires specialized knowledge in both manufacturing practices and curriculum development and delivery. Instructional designers are trained in the knowledge and skills that are required to develop solid training programs. Many companies find it either impractical or cost prohibitive to maintain this level of training expertise on their staffs and sometimes make the mistake of tasking production managers or supervisors to develop the training program they require. In an ideal environment, a company’s production managers or supervisors will be involved in the development of customized training by working with the instructional designer to ensure that the company’s prime training objectives are fulfilled through the curriculum.

The following steps are typically used when developing training curriculum:

Define the gap or deficiency
A team of instructional designers and training specialists will first meet with key members of the client organization in order to help define the training gap or deficiency, determine needs, and establish goals. The team will also perform assessments of the performance environment, potential students, and the training site. This assessment is extremely important in that it will help ensure that the training that will be developed will be 100% transferable and applicable to the client’s environment.

Identification of objectives
Probably the most important step in the process is the development of the performance objectives. The team, working closely with the client organization, will develop performance objectives that address the client’s requirements, needs, and ultimate goals of the project.

Development of evaluation tools
Upon approval of the performance objectives by the client organization, the team will proceed with the development of assessment instruments that will determine whether the trainees have met the client-approved performance objectives at the conclusion of the training. Assessment instruments may include written or oral tests as well as laboratory or hands-on exercise.

Development of curriculum and training method
Once assessment instruments have been finalized, the instructional design team will continue through the development of instructional materials and an appropriate instructional strategy (instructor-led activity-based, computer-based, or a combination thereof). The instructional strategy will be identified as one that will effectively maximize the transfer of skills and knowledge from the classroom to the client’s work environment.

Implementation and evaluation
The instructional design team will continue to be involved through the implementation of the training and assessment instruments. Follow-up evaluation is customarily completed with the client in order to determine that goals of the project were met to the client’s satisfaction.

Conclusion
The EMPF employs instructional designers and training specialists that are available to assist your company’s next training initiative. Whether developing training based on a new process or equipment, industry standards, or your own internal standards and specifications, the EMPF is able to meet your training needs. The EMPF’s customized training initiatives have helped many companies and government organizations educate and prepare their personnel to succeed within their organizations. Those past clients include Motorola, Space Systems/Loral, Rockwell Collins, and the US Navy and Army to name a few. If you have are planning a training initiative, or feel that training can help bridge the skills gap of your employees, contact our Learning Center at (610) 362-1295 and let our team help yours succeed.