Time for a Training Plan

We've surveyed dozens of you about what training you think would help you do your job better. There was plenty of interest and no shortage of suggestions. The Learning Newsroom would like to follow through on those ideas and create a plan by which every newsroom member will have an opportunity to get training to do their jobs well. Other Learning Newsrooms have created such plans and we think we should take advantage of this.

We want to run this idea by you.

We believe there should be a system that requires The Spec to provide a specific amount of training per year for every employee, and for employees to commit to that professional development.
This would translate into achieving a certain number of points per calendar year or a certain number of hours (in the range of 6-12). This would be tied in to performance reviews so that management will have to ensure opportunity and time are available to each person. Each individual will be responsible for creating their own training plan (within the possibilities available) and ensuring they get enough hours or points.

For those of you who feel you have expertise to offer, you can earn your points or hours by training others. The objective is not to force training on anyone but rather offer the opportunity in a sustainable program that makes ongoing professional development a mandatory part of our newsroom culture.

The idea is to offer a broad range of training sessions, from peer-to-peer training to in-house brown bag sessions to major workshops.

We're still in the initial planning before this resembles anything close to a formal proposal for management so we welcome your thoughts. (Managers included please)

Drop us a note or come to our next meeting on MON. OCT. 24 @ 2 P.M. in the editorial boardroom.

Thanks.

The members of your Tools and Training team are: Agnes Bongers, Kevin Cavanagh, Luma Muhtadie, Carmelina Prete, Lesley Simpson, Fred Vallance-Jones, Tammie Danciu, Sandy Van Harten, Marilyn McGrory, Joan Walters. Also contributing to our latest meeting was Denise Davy and Cathie Coward.