WO1998033157A1

WO1998033157A1 - Facilitating workplace training

Info

Publication number: WO1998033157A1
Application number: PCT/AU1998/000034
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stephen Richmond
Original assignee: Adroit Human Resources Pty. Limited
Priority date: 1997-01-23
Filing date: 1998-01-23
Publication date: 1998-07-30
Also published as: AUPO475397A0

Abstract

This invention concerns a computerised controller for facilitating workplace training. The controller maps between tasks and training elements and is automatically operable to communicate with a communications terminal located at a trainee's workplace, to provide requested training information in the form of sets of tasks relevant to the trainee's job description, and to receive appraisal information in the form of groups of tasks in which competency has been achieved. The controller also maps appraisal information received in respect of a particular trainee to the corresponding training elements, and updates that trainee's data to indicate progress towards accreditation. In a second aspect it concerns a method for facilitating workplace training.

Description

FACILITATING WORKPLACE TRAINING

Technical Field

This invention concerns a computerised controller for facilitating workplace training. The controller is used to increase the effectiveness of workplace training. In a second aspect it concerns a method for facilitating workplace training.

Background Art In general the training of entry level employees, for instance in the hospitality industry, requires a considerable amount of "off-the-job" training. This is costly and causes scheduling problems for employers.

Summary of the Invention The invention, as currently envisaged, is a computerised controller for facilitating workplace training, the controller including: a communications port to communicate with remote communications terminals located at workplaces; data storage containing data about trainees their job descriptions and the accreditations sought, data about tasks in which competency is required to satisfy job descriptions, and data about training elements which are required to be successfully completed to achieve accreditations; and mappings between the tasks and the training elements; the controller being automatically operable to communicate with a communications terminal located at a trainee's workplace, to provide requested training information in the form of ^"sets of tasks relevant to the trainee's job description, and to receive appraisal information in the form of groups of tasks in which competency has been achieved; wherein the controller maps appraisal information received in respect of a particular trainee to the corresponding training elements, and updates that trainee's data to indicate progress towards accreditation.

The invention may allow a third party to review the development of skills within the employees of a business and make measurements of learning outcomes based on the skills development. The measurement of the learning outcomes allows the tracking of the progress of the employee against a specified training course. The invention also facilitates the appraisal process. In addition to recording and delivering training material, the invention may also record and deliver daily operating procedures of businesses.

Using the invention, learning outcomes may be measured simultaneously in many different business environments, while at the same time, one business environment may have many different learning implications. Moreover, use of the invention may allow a business to comply with the rigours of a traditional educational system while utilising demonstrations of competency by employees of skills being mastered on the job. The invention may operate in the Lotus Notes environment and may make use of a wide area network.

The invention may use a multiple database architecture to maintain all trainee data, training manual data, administration functions and discussion. The number of databases actually used in any particular environment may be different to other environments and with the passage of time there are several advantages in segregating the invention into multiple databases. These include:

Improved performance (where databases have large volumes)

More focused searching in full text searching Ease of administration

Ease of selective replication

The ability to store more data (a database can hold a maximum of 4 gigabytes) simplified security implementation In a second aspect, as currently envisaged, the invention provides a method for facilitating workplace training, including the steps of: storing data about trainees their job descriptions and the accreditations sought, data about tasks in which competency is required to satisfy job descriptions, data about training elements which are required to be successfully completed to achieve accreditations; mapping between the tasks and the training elements; communicating with a communications terminal located at a trainee's workplace, to provide requested training information in the form of sets of tasks relevant to the trainee's job description, and to receive appraisal information in the form of groups of tasks in which competency has been achieved; and mapping appraisal information received in respect of a particular trainee to the corresponding training elements, and updating that trainee's data to indicate progress towards accreditation.

Although the terminology "trainee" and "trainer" has been used throughout this specification, it should be appreciated that the invention applies equally in other contexts where terms such as "students", "teacher" or lecturer may be more appropriate.

Brief Description of the Drawings An example of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a system employing the invention; figure 2 is hierarchical diagram showing the menu structure in the embodiment of figure 1.

Best Modes for Carrying out the Invention

Referring to figure 1, a computerised controller 1 is employed in the context of a workplace training program which involves the evaluation and assessment of trainees wishing to receive a level II certificate in the hospitality industry, over a period of twelve months.

The program is broken up into six defined stages. The stages are points of assessment consisting of the following: an induction appraisal followed by quarterly appraisals and culminating in certification. The induction appraisal will occur one to two months into a trainees employment and will focus on the basic modules of the traineeship. Each quarterly appraisal will then concern a number of training modules, which will be equally distributed over the twelve month period. The final stage is the confirmation that all of the modules have been completed and the final assessment is granted. Although the program is scheduled to require twelve months to complete, the trainee may accelerate the completion of training by requesting assessments at any time. As some of the people who enter the traineeship will have prior experience it is expected that some of the modules may be completed in a condensed time frame. The only limitation will be on the time taken to set up and complete the assessments. Upon successful completion of the training program, participants will receive a level II certificate in the hospitality industry.

The computerised controller 1 is connected to a wide-area network 2 which provides communications between it and several hospitality enterprises 3, 4 and 5 throughout Australia.

The computerised controller 1 includes three Lotus Notes databases. A Workplace database 6 contains all the trainee profiles and appraisals. A Training Manual database 7 contains both the Government and Employer Organisation training manuals. And A Discussion database 8 contains discussion and response correspondence

The Workplace database 6 is used to store information about the trainees. The information includes personal information as well as details of the trainees employment and training history. The trainees are able to access the controller from workplace terminals in order to view and update this material.

The Workplace database 6 is also accessible by the trainees and their tutors for the purpose of completing appraisals.

The Training Manual database 7 is used by the trainees and tutors to obtain information about the training program to be followed. Both the government's national competency curriculum and the hospitality organisation have at least four tiers of training. The tiers are arranged in hierarchies as shown in figure 2. The highest government tier contains strands 10, the next tier modules 11, then elements 12, and finally criteria 13. In this specification we called the criteria 13 in the lowest tier "training elements" These government tiers do not logically follow a normal working day or traineeship within a hospitality organisation.

The highest tier in the hospitality organisation is a department 14, followed by a job description 15, then a task 16, and finally a performance criteria 17. In this specification we have called the performance criteria 17 in the lowest level "tasks".

The computerised controller provides mappings, indicated generally at 18, between the lowest tiers of the hospitality organisation, that is tasks 17, to the lowest level of the government training program, or training elements 13. This enables the organisation to concentrate on their existing training, with the controller 1 providing the matrix that determines which government standards have been completed. For example, a top tier strand might be Food and Beverage, and a Module below might be Bars and Service of Drinks. Elements might be:

Handle stock and material

Handle cash

Take drink orders

Prepare and serve drinks

Use trays

Greet and acknowledge customers

Advise customers

Clear and clean tables

Clean bar and equipment

Practise legal requirements

Prepare and use coffee-making machine.

Within these elements there are particular competencies, that we call "tasks". So within Take drink orders, there are:

Orders are taken accurately and memorised correctly

Products and brand preferences are checked in a manner acceptable to the industry

Clear and helpful recommendations of advice is given to customers on selection of drinks

A helpful and attentive approach to customers is maintained.

A trainee will access the training manual to identify the competencies that must be practised during his work, and will then be appraised. The controller 1 will keep track of the trainees progress through the appraisals and advice the trainee of progress towards satisfying the modules of the national curriculum.

Navigators and Action bars are used for navigation and buttons for performing all key actions such as the creation, editing, saving and closing of documents. Different types of users will have different access rights allocated to them. Some users may perform searches on whole words, phrases and partial words by using the full text search engine automatically provided in Lotus Notes. A printing facility will need to be enabled for all parts of the application. The system requires a facility to allow trainees to contact tutors by the use of a discussion area in database 8, which has "Public" and "Private" discussion items. The "Public" items can be seen by all participants, but the "Private" discussion items can only be seen by the tutors. The "Private" messages will not be seen again by the participants and the message will be replied to by a phone call initially.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment it should be appreciated that it could be embodied in other forms. For instance, the invention could be applied to workplace training in other industries and other qualifications. Furthermore, the training regime described will be varied according to the environment and circumstances. Also the tiers of the curriculum and the organisation will vary.

Industrial Application It will no doubt be appreciated that the workplace training of staff is no longer an ad hoc activity carried on by some employers, but is now an industry in its own right. The training industry provides services to other industries. Many of these services are educational in nature, but they also include ancillary organisational and provisioning services. As in the manufacturing arts, increases in efficiencies in the ancillary activities, such as control of fuel supply, have important economic benefits. In the present case they allow a greater proportion of resources to be committed to the educational function, and greater profits for the training industry.

The present invention concerns a computerised tool that can be used in the training industry to increase the efficiency with which appropriate, and only appropriate training is provided. It is in some ways analogous to systems which supply feedstock to animals and are able to individually tailor the diet of each animal in a herd. Of course, the precise arrangement of the control system claimed is not the same as any feedstock supply system currently known to the inventors.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

1. A computerised controller for facilitating workplace training, the controller including: a communications port to communicate with remote communications terminals located at workplaces; data storage containing data about trainees their job descriptions and the accreditations sought, data about tasks in which competency is required to satisfy job descriptions, and data about training elements which are required to be successfully completed to achieve accreditations; and mappings between the tasks and the training elements; the controller being automatically operable to communicate with a communications terminal located at a trainee's workplace, to provide requested training information in the form of sets of tasks relevant to the trainee's job description, and to receive appraisal information in the form of groups of tasks in which competency has been achieved; wherein the controller maps appraisal information received in respect of a particular trainee to the corresponding training elements, and updates that trainee's data to indicate progress towards accreditation.

2. A computerised controller for facilitating workplace training according to claim 1, wherein a third party is able to review the development of skills within the employees of a business and make measurements of learning outcomes based on the skills development.

3. A computerised controller for facilitating workplace training according to claim 1, wherein daily operating procedures of businesses are recorded and delivered in addition to the training material.

4. A computerised controller for facilitating workplace training according to any preceding claim, which operates in the Lotus Notes environment and makes use of a wide area network.

5. A computerised controller for facilitating workplace training according to any preceding claim, which uses a multiple database architecture to maintain all trainee data, training manual data, administration functions and discussion.

6. A method for facilitating workplace training, including the steps of: storing data about trainees their job descriptions and the accreditations sought, data about tasks in which competency is required to satisfy job descriptions, data about training elements which are required to be successfully completed to achieve accreditations; mapping between the tasks and the training elements; communicating with a communications terminal located at a trainee's workplace, to provide requested training information in the form of sets of tasks relevant to the trainee's job description, and to receive appraisal information in the form of groups of tasks in which competency has been achieved; and mapping appraisal information received in respect of a particular trainee to the corresponding training elements, and updating that trainee's data to indicate progress towards accreditation.