It is always said that learner profile is a very crucial element to designing the right kind of training for the right kind of audience,however I am yet to see a good sample /example of a detailed Learner profile .The question arises as to what is the best way to start writing learner profiles and more so how is a learner profile written for an organisation that has a very high rate of attrition and the learner profile is extremely dynamic,any ideas anyone ?

I gather information before each event. That way it is accurate and fresh. If I were giving a class on a tool called X, I might ask (in addition to name, phone, etc):

• What is your position (Sr. Manager, Manager, Technician, etc.)?
  
• How many years experience do you have in your position?
  
• How much experience do you have with X?
  
• What do you want do do with X?
  
• What projects are you working on?
  
• How often will you be using X?
  
• Tell me something interesting about yourself.
  

Some events may necessitate asking for more information, some less. This should give you a start, thouth.

Ok,that sounds like a good start.
Hmmm...This would mean that to do an Audience analysis for an Organisation I would actaully have to go ahead and create a series of questionnaires for all positions within the organisation,detailing out their roles,responsibilities and the tasks that they do...
Any sites where I can do some research on writing learner profiles and audience analysis ?

Don't try to do it for the whole organization. Do it for each training/coaching/whatever event. Organizations change. People get new titles and responsibilities so frequently that doing it once or even monthly would give inaccurate results and probably would not yield enough results to be useful.

Send the questionaires out for each event. Ask the event designer (e.g. course author) what information would help him or her tailor the event to the audience. If you are in the design phase of, say, a course to be taught ten times, you'll have a slightly different audience each time. Ask for profiles for representative participants at the beginning of the design phase (really in the specification part of the design phase), and then get the same and possibly more info at each execution of the course.

Participant profiles are a snapshot of the individuals at a given time. You want that snapshot right before design and right before delivery. I generally give them a few days before a course or even on the first day of a longer event.

quote:

Any sites where I can do some research on writing learner profiles and audience analysis ?

Try Google.....there are lots of examples out there. Or try the bookstore or library - lots of good books that should help, but you will need to search them out and find what makes the most sense for you. Start with some basic books on training. Sometimes a discussion forum cannot substitute for good old-fashioned research, nor should it.