Training and Assessment

[Mike]

I had the opportunity to partake in a pilot course on the weekend....

The general Idea of the course was that there will be no requirement to do the assessment on that day. IE - do the training; then.... if you don't think your ready for the assessments, do them later when you are ready; or decide its not really for you and don't do it at all.....

I reckon the idea has some merit, but it has the potential to leave things a little open ended as such....

What are other peoples thoughts???

[Firefrog]

Hi Mike - What type of course was it.

I guess I'm from the school of thought that if you put your hand up to do a course you should go the whole hog and become competent and qualified. So you can go on to carry out the function.

I'm not sure if I understand your example but if trainees can attend a course and the say nah not for me - it could waste resources.

But it depends on the context and intent of the training.

[Mike]

Twas a Map and Nav Course.... Traditionally a very high failure rate (+75%).... The problem was a lot of people walked away from the course feeling quite disheartened.....


The theory was to break the entire course up into 2 modules. 1 for map reading, and the second for field navigation.  The other reason for the idea was for re-accreditation purposes. so you dont have to do the entire course again, and just choose to do the assessment.

Personally if i go to a weekend course, i expect to be asessed on the weekend....

[oz fire]

Mike was this similar to the course SES undertake - I understand they do an intensive map reading and also land navigation course.

If it's the same, maybe in the spirit of cooperation the services could do it together - break some barriers - if it's different, I'm wondering why we are re-inventing the wheel again.

As for assessment - much easier to do it all at once, while the information is fresh - the stats on adult learning retention aren't flash so why not strike while the irons hot

There is training for understanding, hence an overview and then training for accreditation - hence full training and assessment!

[Mike]

I like your thinking Oz..... but it was for SES. I think i was a tad mis-leading with my opening statement now i read it again.... this was not an all out 'this is how it will be done' comment. It was mearly to get us thinking about the assessment and re-accredit process.

For re-accredit, I think its a great idea.....