7.1: Establishing ICT training needs for individuals or groups

Table of Contents

1. Training needs analysis
   1. TNA problems
   2. Estimating ICT Competence
   3. Sources of information regarding ICT competence
   4. Information gathering techniques
   5. Direct Observation
   6. Examination of Work Products
   7. Practical Tests and Assessments
   8. Questionnaires or Checklists
   9. Staff Appraisal Reports
   10. Interviews or Focus Groups
   11. Areas of competence
   12. Learning objectives
   13. Methods of gathering information
   14. Dealing with differing skill levels

Estimating ICT Competence

Learners may have acquired differing levels of ICT competence through:

• formal training in the workplace
• experience in the workplace
• off-the-job training such as an ICT course at school or college
• personal development and experience outside work.

Where skills and knowledge come from non-workplace environments, it is important to make sure that they are transferable into a workplace setting. ICT skills and knowledge usually do transfer readily. Thus your TNA should relate to competences from both work and non-work environments.

The obvious place to start is with the learners themselves. However, people are, depending on their personality, often inclined to underplay or alternatively exaggerate their ICT competence and experience. So you will wish to corroborate the learner's estimates of their competence through hard evidence or the views of other people.

Let's have a look now at Sources of information regarding ICT competence ...