I began a new job (new position) as Training Coordinator for a national company one week ago. They have some immediate needs that I think that I can create short training for. I work with 3 team managers that are over 75 total employees. Today, I took a tour of our sister company (same company, different product, similar employees) that has an entire training department for 400 employees. Wow!
This was amazing. They have training specialists, e-learning developer, and senior trainers (in charge of individual divisions).They have the required training for each position within the company and how they can move up in their position. There is nothing close to this here.
Now, I am totally overwhelmed. I don't want to spit out training to fix the problem at hand. I want to impress them but don't want to do mediocre work. There are some e-learning programs that I can get (through Netg) that can help with some of the problems they need help with.

Where to begin? Oh, did I mention that I am new to this career as well?

No idea what the industry is, so I can only give very general feedback. First thing is you need to understand what the mucky-mucks want out of training - what are thier expectations. Then, try to understand what the front line employees need from training. Start with the low-hanging fruit. Fix a few relatively minor issues quickly...this will help grease the wheels for future requests for time, money and resources for bigger issues. This will also establish your credibility The worst mistake you can make in our industry (training, I mean), is to bite off more than you can chew. Create a plan - 3 months, 6 months, 1 year - and outline what you want to accomplish. Line up supporters - usually higher level managers.

This is all very general feedback, but hopefully it will give you a few things to chew over. Good luck...you have a very busy year ahead.

Agree with Sheehan, adding: Why were you hired and did they establish priorities ? Go talk to them. Establish where the pain is, that can be
treated with some degree of success presently.
Fold all present efforts into the plan Sheehan suggests.
Don't be taken back at what you saw and do not think all I have to do is copy. The situations can and probably are very different. It usually turns on some nuance that is not at first visable.

Nero

I also agree with Brian's and Nero's comments. I am reading that you have a short-term objective and a long-term objective.

In the short-term you are definitely looking for Quick Hits that will target the immediate expected results by providing the training that will help the people achieve those results. As Nero and Brian point out, this comes from the managers and the employees defining the immediate need.

In the long-term plan, as Brian suggested, you will need to look ahead and define the strategy that will drive training people to achieve results. In the plan, and perhaps for the Quick Hits, consider that the people are performing job roles that execute processes to achieve the business results.

For a basic high level description of what might go into a Corporate Learning Strategy, check out Developing a Corporate Learning Strategy which includes an illustrated pyramid of the above statement.

Here on some books to consider as well:

High Impact Learning
by Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Anne M. Apking

Basics of Instructional Systems Development
by Chuck Hodell

Learning Paths: Increase Profits by Reducing the Time It Takes Employees to Get Up-To-Speed
by Jim Williams and Steve Rosenbaum

Finally, being new to this profession you might try to find an experience learning professional who could coach or mentor you as you develop.

I hope this is somewhat useful to you and I also wish you luck and welcome to the training profession.

Thanks!

How much of what you saw at your sister company can you leverage or implement where you are to help get you started?