Hi everyone. First post here...new ASTD member.

I'm a training manager who doesn't have a training request form. Nothing in-house at my new company, and I've frankly never put one together myself. Does anyone know if there are free templates out there for this sort of thing? I'm not going to take anyone's form, but would love to see a couple examples to help me design the one I intend to use in-house.

I'm at a company where ½ of my training will be IT / software, and the other ½ interpersonal skills (biz writing, etc.).

Thank you,

Rob

Hi Rob -- May I recommend that you begin by listing the types of things you'd expect/want the requestor to know (and tell you) before requesting training? First rule of order -- if they request training as a solution, they need to either: supply the information that led them to the conclusion that indicated training as one of the solutions to their issue, OR they need to allow you the time to perform a proper analysis. Basically, the training request form should include a high level of all the questions you would answer in your initial needs analysis. What is the business goal? What performance impacts that goal? What's are the performance gaps? What's causing them? What parts of the gap are caused by lack of skill/knowledge?

And of course, one of the best initial questions to ask:

If you put a gun to their heads, could they do the task(s)?

ChicagoRob,

Two quick clarifying questions....

What is the size of the organization (people)?

How is the learning and development function organized (meaning...is there a corporate activity....do you have counterparts in the organization)?

Thanks

Thanks for the advice. The "gun to their heads" question is especially interesting, as that's really the bottom line of training in any case.

Oddly enough, as the only training staff for my region, I'm straddling both technical and non-technical training. The gun-to-head analogy works for technical training requests, but not as much for the non-technical (ex: business writing) requests.

Thanks!

Rob

quote:

Originally posted by Fanatic Facilitator:


And of course, one of the best initial questions to ask:

If you put a gun to their heads, could they do the task(s)?

Organization is 8,000 worldwide, but about 3,400 in the US. I'm in charge of training for the central region (approx. 1,000) of the US. I'm at the corporate location in my region, and I have counterparts in the other 4 regions of the US.

Does that help with the request for training form ideas? My west coast training manager counterpart has sent me a list of ideas, but nobody else has an actual form.

Thanks.

Rob

quote:

Originally posted by verite:
ChicagoRob,

Two quick clarifying questions....

What is the size of the organization (people)?

How is the learning and development function organized (meaning...is there a corporate activity....do you have counterparts in the organization)?

Thanks