People learn throughout their lives. Learning can increase productivity, prepare individuals for career advancement, allow for succession planning and most of all, it keeps work interesting! Jacques Whitford can help you enhance and grow your training programs to ensure that they are excellent and effective.
Skilled training professionals within the Jacques Whitford Learning Services team can support you at any stage of the training cycle. We have the skills and expertise to help optimize your learning program, whether it is for needs analysis, program design, development and delivery, or review and improvement. 
Training always begins with
three primary considerations:- Who is the target audience?
- What do they need to know?
- How will progress be measured?
You may already have the answers to these questions, or you may want to work with us to complete the upfront identification of needs. Once we have the answers to these questions, we can identify gaps and get ready to design the training program.
Filling identified gaps is best done through the identification of learning outcomes. Outcomes should be specific, measurable, realistic, and in many cases, incremental. They should also accommodate prior learning and provide participants with an opportunity to take into account educational, work and life experiences.
To fully succeed in program design, we focus on the principles of adult education. All training products are designed to appeal to the principal learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – and are participant-centred, peer-based learning experiences to accommodate the wide range of educational backgrounds.
While being responsive to the learning needs of individuals, we try to make our training programs sustainable in and of themselves by thinking about the resources we use to deliver the training. For example, we rely on training methods that can be delivered locally through local trainers or flexible self-training tools, where appropriate.
At the core of our learning philosophy is a belief that event-oriented training - a single classroom session or online course - is not enough. Our experience has shown that retention and job-readiness is maximized when the right tools are matched to the situation. Knowledge products such as checklists, tip sheets, quick look-up tools and smart forms are as important as the presentation slides used by the instructor. In every step of the design we keep the overall change management process in mind, and we work to facilitate the long term evolution of corporate culture to incorporate the training content.
We feel that there are many ways to transfer knowledge:
- Online learning is great for providing background information
- On-site sessions facilitate effective demonstrations
- Activity-based classroom experiences facilitate discussion and networking
- Small group learning allows people to benefit from the knowledge of their peers
- Coaching is the best way to provide longer term guidance and to answer questions
People need to be able to demonstrate competency once they complete a training event. As a result, we place an emphasis on effective testing at key points in the learning cycle. This includes developing flexible tools for competency assessment such as tests, role play with instructors, trivia games, group projects, and more! To be effective, competency assessments must meet rigid criteria, provide constructive feedback and allow students the opportunity to try again, if at first they do not succeed.
Did You Know… Learning outcomes are best achieved when they are delivered by 'best methods of support'. For example: - Knowledge transfer is best achieved through online tools.
- Practice of skills may happen online or on-site, depending on the skill.
- Collaboration can be facilitated through teleconferences if getting together is not possible.
- Guidance and support are usually best provided through a coaching or mentoring relationship.
- Performance measurement can be integrated into existing employee evaluations.
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We have considerable experience building training tools. We have completed several significant training projects on time and on budget.
The learning tools we have developed include online learning courses, classroom and on-site courses, Web pages, Web databases, communications and program promotions.
Click on the link to see examples of Learning Solutions we have developed for our clients.
We also have an impressive group of trainers who have wide and diverse experience in sustainability, environment, health and safety topics. We can deliver training in all regions of Canada, in both official languages.
Click on the link to read descriptions of some of the JWTI Classroom and On-site Courses that have been developed and delivered to our clients.
The evaluation of existing programs is essential to understand the return on investment. This includes reviewing newly developed products after an initial pilot implementation, as well as evaluating existing learning products against desired outcomes. The most important questions to ask include:
- Are we achieving the learning outcomes?
- Are we realizing the benefits that were envisioned?
Such a review needs to examine selected indicators such as reduced costs, reduced risk, enhanced due diligence, improved productivity, employee recruitment and retention, succession planning, entry into new markets, or improved quality control.
When evaluating programs, we work with the client to understand the desired outcomes and to determine if they were met. We are rigorous about our pursuit, linking findings to conclusions and finally recommendations. We can incorporate many forms of facilitated sessions, focus groups and surveys in an effort to better evaluate the situation.
Need more information? Please contact Darlene Monkman at 613-738-6071.