Staff Training Resources

Welcome to the new Trainers' Resource website! This periodic column will give us a chance to share articles and information relating to the daily challenge of building the skills needed to provide effective employment services to individuals with disabilities.

The rehabilitation agencies in our region (Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington) take a variety of approaches to training their new and experienced staff. Some have formal curricula that are presented according to a structured plan. Some rely on a combination of job shadowing and peer mentoring along with occasional training classes.

And some have good intentions but find that staff training - beyond what's legally required - keeps getting relegated to the back burner as other issues clamor for attention. Many of the students in our training classes report that they received no training at all as they started their jobs - the previous staff person introduced them to the participants and that was about it!

Here's a comment from Training magazine (January 2004): "The best training is and always will be on-the-job training with a peer or mentor practicing what your work actually entails. Experiential, action learning tied to your real job objectives has the best chance of providing the motivation, timeliness and ease required for successful learning." How can we best provide that to staff who already have more to do than they have time for? Let me know what you think!

Laurie.Ford@wwu.edu