Training Program

Development and Implementation Plan

Examination of Instructional Methods and Learning Objectives

According to generally accepted definition, instructional design is an approach, methodology, or even philosophy of delivering information to trainees. In other words, it is the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of instruction. There is a plethora of cognitive and behavioral instructional methods so that people in charge of developing and implementing training programs need to choose the most applicable of them (Goldstein & Ford, 2001). Prior to giving training, instructors should be able to gauge the impact that each of these methods is likely to have on trainees, keeping their skills and background in mind. Cognitive instructional methods run the gamut of importance from computer-based training, demonstrations, discussions, intelligent tutorial systems and lectures to programmed instructions and video trainings (Wilson, 2012). It is necessary to understand the advantages and disadvantages of these methods to develop a proper training program. For instance, a lecture is not always a good option because a long period of trainee inactivity might eventuate. Behavioral instructional methods include behavioral modeling, business games, case studies, equipment stimulators, games, etc. (Wilson, 2012). In juxtaposition to cognitive instructional methods, behavioral ones are aimed at the development of skills in trainees. For a better outcome, it is essential that different instructional methods should be fused together to produce an impeccable training program.

Learning objectives also play an important role in the process of developing a training program. In particular, learning objectives can assist trainers in designing instructional materials insomuch that the latter can use them as a template guiding the development of activities. Second, they can help select an appropriate learning strategy, which is an essential step in the training program development (Kozlowski & Salas, 2009). Third, learning objectives reveal how to translate existing competencies into the desirable ones. Apart from helping with the development of a training program, learning objectives may also serve as an indispensable guide in the process of assessment planning (Kozlowski & Salas, 2009). Indeed, many trainers use learning objectives as benchmarks against which to measure the competency of trainees. Moreover, trainers can avail themselves of learning objectives in order to make sure that a holistic assessment strategy has been developed.

Resources Required for Designing, Developing, and Implementing the Training Program

It is a matter of conventional wisdom that an extensive and imprudently designed training program can eviscerate the organizations budget. Hence, it is important that resources necessary for a training program should be utilized cautiously and reasonably (Kozlowski & Salas, 2009). Managers of the Organization for Strong and Thriving Africa (OSTA) take cognizance of the desperate plight of African people and, therefore, realize that every dollar can save lives in particularly harsh African environments. Thus, in order to ensure that the maximum number of Africans can forge their future free from the trammels of social deprivation and pauperism, the OSTA aspires not to spend money extravagantly on indirect purposes. Simultaneously, the organization understands that training is a matter of expediency rather than extravagancy (Chan, 2009). As many former employees of the OSTA remain loyal to its cause, the organization does not always need to dissipate funds on trainers. Thus, these erstwhile employees in concert with OSTA personnel managers often do the lions share of work associated with the design, development, and implementation of the training program. There are a few more articles of expenditure, such as traveling and sojourning costs of attendees, covered by OSTA partners. For instance, if a seminar or other method of training is held off the job, the OSTA compounds with the receiving organization to reimburse employees for travel expenses. At the same time, in order to pay obeisance and express gratitude to the visiting trainers, the OSTA recompenses them for any travel costs.

It should be noted that the rest of resources are obtained at the expense of the OSTA. The organization does not retain obsolete technologies, and, thus, it constantly tries to keep abreast of the latest developments in the technological sphere. Given the exponential rate of technological advance, the OSTA spends quite a lot on new equipment for the training purposes. At the same time, those pieces of equipment that have fallen into desuetude are sent to African schools, thereby making this process less ruinous to the organizations budget. Provision of training materials is not a very expensive procedure so that the OSTA can handle it single-handedly. All in all, the Organization for Strong and Thriving Africa takes a very cautious, yet efficient approach to the allocation of resources for its training programs.

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Instructional Strategy for the Training Program

In itself, the experiential learning model proposed by Blanchard and Thacker (2013) is a modification of an earlier model by Pfeiffer and Jones. It includes the following steps: eliciting relevant experiences from trainees, providing new information to trainees, analyzing these experiences and information, establishing relevance to other situations, and planning effective use of the concepts learned (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013). It is imperative that both the instructor and the trainees should be involved in each of these five phases. After all, new concepts will work only if they find an echo with trainees. In the first phase, OSTA instructors will try to immerse trainees in real job experience, thereby showing them that they may lack certain competencies. In the next phase, the instructor will provide the group with the appropriate information to teach them how to enhance performance. At the third stage, it is both necessary to make sense of the information generated by trainees and elucidate new concepts and principles (Blanchard & Thacker, 2013). Afterwards, the instructor will make generalizations, advance conjectures, and crystallize conclusions from the provided information. Finally, in the fifth phase, the instructor will teach trainees to make use of the gained knowledge in real life.

Job Aid Supporting the Training Program

How to Rejuvenate Motivation of the Employees?

With the view of reinvigorating motivation of the employees, the instructor will need to teach them to do the following:

Grapple with their fears;

Articulate clear and feasible goals (Waddill & Marquardt, 2012);

Cope with the lack of autonomy on the one hand and lack of challenge on the other.

Table 1

Decision Table

If	Then
Trainees are obviously demotivated	Intimate to them that low motivation is not something totally bad and try to understand why they feel demotivated
Trainees willingly speak about the reasons for their lack of enthusiasm	Buoy them up and provide concrete examples of how to deal with low motivation
Trainees balk at sharing their experiences	Find out what are their major responsibilities, ask if they are satisfied with their current position in the OSTA, and speak about common situations relevant to their cases
The reasons for low motivation are not related to the job environment	Teach trainees to concentrate on their responsibilities at work (Chan, 2009)
The signs of demotivation are hard to discern	The instructor should employ a variety of the aforementioned techniques

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