The Individual Course Project must be comprehensive and follow the analytical stages below.

1. Select an organization to be studied.
2. Develop and conduct a needs assessment.
3. Analyze the data collected and identify training needs.
4. Develop a training or intervention strategy to address the needs.
5. Determine the training intervention cost and quantify expected results.
6. Develop an evaluation method.

Once the steps have been completed, a detailed paper outlining your processes, methodologies, results, and recommendations should be prepared. Although the length of the paper is not predetermined, a paper of 1015 pages in length, double-spaced, is customarily necessary to cover the topic adequately. This does not include the title and reference pages.

APA Style # 6 is the style sheet to be used for all written papers in this course.  

Note: There is an excellent guide online called Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and Development Efforts in the Federal Government published by the United States General Accounting Office. Although this relates to the government and not the private sector, it contains excellent information that can be applied anywhere.

Milestones: Project PhasesIn Detail

Part 1: Select an Organization to Be Studied

There are a number of ways in which an organization can be selected. One option is to look outside your organization for companies that would be interested in participating in the project. Another is to volunteer your own organization, or if you are not currently employed, use a church, school, club, or other organization.

Once your organization has been selected, you will need to learn a great deal about it. It is essential for you to understand the organization’s business, goals, objectives, and mission in order to complete this project successfully.

Individual Course Project Proposal – Outline (80-points) due Week 1   The OrganizationSelect an organization to be used for this Individual Course Project10-pointsHistory / BackgroundDescribe the history / background of the organization10-pointsCurrent BusinessDescribe their current business. What do they do? Why?10-pointsM, G & ODescribe the mission, goals and objectives of the business10-pointsCurrent T & D DepartmentDescribe in as much detail as you can find the current Training and Employee Development department. What do they do? Why? Do they seem proactive? Or, mostly reactive? Why? How can you tell?20-pointsProblemsLook at the entire organization. What challenges / problems are they experiencing? Why? Does it seem like they have a clear path forward using a training and development intervention? Why? How can you tell?10-pointsYour Reason(s)Why do you wish to research, study, and write about this company from a Training and Development perspective?10-points    Total Points80-points

Submit the required information on your selected organization as a Week One assignment.  This week one assignment is worth 80-points.  Please note that you will also be submitting a written report for this project in Week 5.  The Week 5 Paper assignment is worth 100-points.  

Part 2: Conduct a Needs Assessment

Training and development processes begin with a needs assessment. Given the economic pressures that businesses face today, it is imperative that those needs be connected to specific organizational performance issues. There are three different forms of analysis you will need to complete.

1. Organizational analysis involves determining the appropriateness of training given the organization’s business strategy, its resources available for training, and support by managers and peers for training activities.
2. Person analysis involves (1) determining whether performance deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or ability (a training issue) or from a motivational or work-design problem; (2) identifying who needs training; and (3) determining employees readiness for training.
3. Task analysis identifies the important tasks and knowledge, skill, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training for employees to complete their tasks.

Hints for a Successful Needs Assessment

As you conduct your needs assessment, you may want to consider four potential sources of information that may help you in your analysis. Information such as employee turnover analysis, incident reports, long-range production goals, employee satisfaction studies, and physical plant layout can tell us a lot. Examples of other documents you may wish to consider include the following.

• Business documents: Key business documents can be used to determine areas of poor performance and developmental needs. Such documents may include
  
  1. unit productivity reports;
  2. customer satisfaction surveys;
  3. communication survey reports; and
  4. competitive analysis reports.