Education and Training A Dispersed Workforce The Technology Solution(2005年公共管理国际会议论文).docVIP

Education and Training A Dispersed Workforce:The Technology Solution? Manfred F. Meine Troy University, Troy, Alabama,USA Abstract A well trained and educated workforce is critical to the success of an organization, but providing timely, meaningful and standardized training poses significant challenges for today’s public agencies, especially first responder organizations operating on a 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week, and 365-day-per-year schedule. Like America’s military, public agencies, particularly first responders, are experiencing a high operational tempo. Workload, around the clock schedules and geographical dispersion present significant challenges for trainers, making it extremely difficult to schedule for and deliver classroom training to many public service and public safety organizations. Since it is common in today’s world to look to technology for a solution it is appropriate to ask if there is a technology solution available for public agency training and education. Various methods employed for training and education delivery are explored in this paper, and the advantages and disadvantages of such efforts are addressed. Key words Technology Sohition 1 Introduction Providing timely, meaningful and especially standardized training is especially challenging for public agencies, especially first responder organizations operating around the clock and year around. A nation’s military, its police forces and other first responders are generally widely dispersed and are frequently functioning at a high operational tempo, particularly in an era of terrorism and other security threats. As a result, training delivery to far flung organizations presents significant challenges. A case in point is the numerous U.S. police organizations that frequently rely on roll call training which they and simply presume to be effective. Unfortunately in widely dispersed departments a reliance on a myriad of trainers training at different times while necessary ma