How to Design and Monitor Corporate Training Programs – Sample Career Development Plan

The aim of a training program is to develop employee skills in targeted manner, so as to mitigate the gap between each employee’s skills profile and the job requirements of the position they hold. This, however, has to be done in compliance with the more general goals embedded in the company’s organizational strategy.

Moreover, the priorities of any competency development program always derive from the organization’s strategic goals and orientations. The development of employability skills thus contributes to corporate sustainability – which represents the main goal of any training (or development) process. Indeed, the final goal of any training program does not simply consist in building up the skillset of some individuals, but rather in developing their professional potential in an organizational context.

Ideally, organizational development should incorporate 3 strongly interdependent concepts that make up the pillars of every HR development policy: Management Development programs (guidelines)Management by Objectives (guidelines) and Training programs.

TOOLS

The resources that have to be managed in the context of the management of any development process are of 3 types:

  1. Financial resources: balancing of specific budgets, cost management
  2. Technical resources: material used, tools, infrastructure (booking, adaptation to the training’s requirements…)
  3. Human resources: management of internal and external resources (trainers and/or internal or external experts)

Moreover, the diverse training methods employed (job rotation, coaching, seminars, e-learning, etc.) should take different elements into account, such as the training’s mission and goals, as well as the programs’ contents and the participants’ level of command.

PRACTICE

A competency development process (illustration) should follow very well-defined steps, as outlined in the annexed document. A development plan should only be designed once an assessment of the development need has been performed. The development plan will include the following elements:

  • A skill gap analysis, i.e. an analysis of the gap between the job requirements and the competency profile of the job holders
  • A professional development gap analysis, i.e. the analysis of the gap between the person’s career goals and their degree of fulfillment

Please note that the development process’ timeline will vary depending on whether you are dealing with skills relating to knowledge, know-how or behavior. Moreover, every development process should integrate a continuous communication process that can be broken down into two parts: 1) the internal communication process (aimed at both the participants and at trainers and experts who are available within the company – i.e. internally) and 2) the external communication process (for external trainers).

When designing a training program, particular attention should also be paid to the identification of the players involved in the development process, as well as to their respective responsibility assignments. In order to achieve efficient coordination, you will also need to appoint:

  1. ​a training manager, whose task will consist in designing, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the training program.
  2. administrative asssistants, who will mainly fulfill a monitoring (applications, exams, results) and logistical role.
  3. the trainers who will be in charge, among others, of designing the training program and of monitoring the trainees’ learning progress…
  4. the experts who will only appear occasionally in the course of the training program to bring in some specialized knowledge; such interventions however require a specific organization.

Finally, the monitoring of the training program should allow for the clarification and adjustment of both the participants’ and the trainers’ perceptions and/or expectations as to what the roles of the different players and the final goals of the training program should be (feedback from the trainers, coordination with the hierarchy in relation with the assessment of the participants’ progress, etc.).

SAMPLES

Here is the example of a training program (sample) specifically aimed at developing the managerial skills of a target group of team leaders. After an assessment phase (Module 1), the following modules are adjusted to meet the development needs that have been identified for this specific group of managers.

As a complement, you may find here a sample table that may be used for the monitoring of corporate training programs (case study). It allows, among other things, to efficiently monitor budget spendings, whether of the company as a whole, or for a department, a team, etc. Such tables can easily be created in Excel, for example.