Assessing and designing in-service training programs for senior volunteers
Abstract
A volunteer program should incorporate the skills and information necessary to support senior volunteers in all aspects of their assigned roles. The Agelong Learning Model© provides project directors with a research-based approach to senior volunteer training and development. As a result, senior volunteers develop a greater sense of competence, enabling them to provide better support to the people they serve. This effective practice is based on the 2001 National Service Fellows report by Caroline E. Crocoll, Inspiring Volunteer Development: A Resource Book for Training Senior Volunteers in Intergenerational Programs, The document also contains worksheets and resource lists.
Issue
A comprehensive volunteer program should incorporate a broad array of skills and information necessary to support senior volunteers in all aspects of their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Action
In-Service Training Topics
The Agelong Learning Model© (developed by Caroline E. Crocoll) contains seven key categories that stakeholders believe are important to senior volunteer development. These training categories include:
- Assignment-Related Knowledge and Skills
- Policies and Regulations
- Social Interaction
- Personal Development
- Resource Information
- Program Support
- Civic Identity
Project directors, volunteers, and volunteer station staff expressed the importance of on-going training in the knowledge and skills associated with the volunteer assignment. They also stressed that information on policies and regulations of the volunteer program should be incorporated into in-service training to keep volunteers continually updated on changes at all relevant levels.
Volunteers expressed the importance of sharing their experiences and reflections through social interaction with peers. They also stated a need to celebrate and be recognized for their accomplishments and contributions. These factors enhance the quality of training through an informal service-learning process.
The final four categories of in-service training emerged as a means of strengthening the senior volunteer's feelings of competence and identity and thus their ability to be more effective in the field. If programs consider their training goal as not only enhancing the senior volunteers' skills, but also providing new information relative to the volunteers' personal welfare, the categories of personal development, resource information, program support, and civic identity become critical to maximizing volunteer potential.
Assessing In-Service Training Needs
What Is a Needs Assessment?
A needs assessment is a systematic set of procedures undertaken for the purpose of setting priorities and making decisions. In this case, the priorities and decisions concern an improved training process and the allocation of resources. In other words, it helps project directors to identify and measure gaps between what is and what ought to be in their programs.
Why Conduct a Needs Assessment?
Although many project directors may believe they already know what the training needs of senior volunteers are, their knowledge is often based on impressions or experiences of limited situations. A needs assessments is a more objective way to develop in-service training by:
- Identifying strengths and weaknesses
- Providing a baseline against which to compare future changes in the in-service training status
- Facilitating the project director's ability to plan, make better informed decisions, and set priorities about in-service training needs
- Facilitating the project director's ability to more effectively and efficiently allocate and use in-service training resources
- Providing important information, even though resources and time may be limited
- Adding credibility to in-service training
Who Conducts Needs Assessments?
Depending on one's experience level and the complexity of the assessment, a project director could plan and conduct her/his own assessment. Otherwise, a project director might consider an in-house evaluator, or hiring a contractor for part or all of the assessment activities.
Methods of Conducting a Needs Assessment
- Surveys are tools for collecting quantitative data (e.g., counts and frequencies) of attitudes and practices. Surveys are particularly useful for gathering information that describes the nature and extent of a specified issue or problem. Furthermore, this data collection method can be used to establish baselines against which future comparisons can be made and to analyze trends across time.
- Interviews represent an effective method for collecting in-depth information about a topic or issue. The interviewer can clarify questions, and probe by asking additional questions, to enhance the likelihood of obtaining useful responses from the interviewee. Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or by telephone. The format of interviews can be either structured or unstructured. If straightforward facts are sought, a structured approach is best. When more complex questions are being raised, an unstructured approach should be used. Interviews can serve as an alternative to written surveys. They can also be used after a survey to explore specific results in more detail and greater depth.
- Focus groups are useful for collecting qualitative data from group discussions. A moderator follows a predetermined interview prompt to direct a discussion among five to twelve people with the purpose of collecting in-depth information about attitudes and experiences on a defined topic. The moderator of a focus group should write up a summary observation immediately following the session. S/he should also try to include comparisons to what other groups reported. Enhance summary observations by incorporating the field notes of a session observer. If only a single brief report is necessary for the needs assessment, multiple summary observations can be analyzed collectively.
Designing In-Service Training Programs
Project directors designing in-service training for their senior volunteers are encouraged to use the following process, adapted from Rosemary Caffarella's interactive program planning model, to support their training efforts. A worksheet using this model can be found in Appendix C of the source document.
Identifying In-Service Training Ideas
- Decide what sources to use in generating ideas for in-service training programs (e.g., former and/or current volunteers, organizational and community leaders, personal issues, regulations and mandates, societal problems, etc.).
- Determine the best ways to identify these ideas for training (e.g., formal needs assessments, observations, interviews, conversations with colleagues, job analysis, review of written materials, etc.).
Sorting and Prioritizing Training Ideas
- Determine which activities are the best ways to respond to the ideas generated.
- Develop a process to prioritize training ideas for which in-service programs should be planned. Become knowledgeable of alternative interventions and create networks of people who will listen and act when they are needed.
Developing Training Objectives
- Write program objectives that reflect both what senior volunteers will learn and the effects of that learning, as well as the operational aspects of the program.
- Check to see that training objectives are written clearly so that they can be understood by all parties involved.
Preparing for the Transfer of Learning
- Decide when the transfer-of-learning strategies should be employed.
- Determine the key players who need to be part of the transfer-of-learning process (e.g., volunteers, project staff, instructors, volunteer supervisors, community leaders, etc.).
- Choose transfer strategies that will be the most useful in assisting senior volunteers to apply what they have learned (developing individualized or group learning plans, providing mentors or peer coaches, self-help or support groups).
Determining Formats, Schedules, and Staff Needs
- Choose the most appropriate formats for the training activities (individual, small-group, large-group, distance-learning, or community-learning formats).
- Devise a training schedule that best fits the format chosen and the volunteers' needs.
- Identify the type of staff needed (training designers, training coordinators, evaluators, and instructors/facilitators).
- Determine whether staff (paid or volunteer) can plan and conduct the program or whether external resources are needed.
Preparing Budgets and Materials
- Develop clear learning objectives for each instructional session.
- Select and sequence the content based on what the participants already know, the nature of the content itself, and instructor preference.
- Choose training delivery methods that match the focus of the proposed learning outcomes that you are capable of using (lectures, case studies, role-playing, story telling, games, and metaphor analysis). See Appendix D of the source document for additional information and ideas on training delivery methods.
Formulating Evaluation Plans
- Specify the evaluation approaches that will be used, including the use of informal evaluation opportunities. See Appendix E of the source document for more information on conducting training evaluations.
- Determine how the evaluation data will be collected (e.g., observations, questionnaires, product reviews, etc.).
- Think through how the data will be analyzed, including how to integrate data collected through any informal evaluation processes.
- Develop recommendations for current and/or future training directions based on the judgements that were made and suggest ideas for addressing these recommendations; include what resources would be needed.
Context
This report contains information and effective practices from leaders in the fields of adult education, gerontology, program development, and evaluation. The target audience for this study was comprised mainly of adults over the age of sixty.
The researcher conducted an extensive literature review on training and the senior volunteer, interviewed senior volunteer project directors and project volunteers, and developed the Survey of Senior Volunteer Training Needs to gather data from volunteer station staff and supervisors.
The Foster Grandparent Program was used as the representative senior volunteer program for this study. Additional information was gathered from artifact and historical data to include program operations handbooks and project in-service training agendas.
Citation
Crocoll, Caroline E. Inspiring Volunteer Development: A resource book for training senior volunteers in intergenerational programs. Washington, D.C.: Corporation for National and Community Service National Service Fellowship Program, July 2001.
Outcome
The Agelong Learning Model© takes the concept of lifelong learning to another level. The idea of agelong learning is to support the senior volunteer's ability to enhance future generations through a greater sense of competence and identity. It is not just about the improvement or fulfillment of the individual, but how that improvement provides future generations with enduring ideas from which to learn and grow. The many potential benefits of the model include:
- Increased volunteer satisfaction
- Increased efficiency and potential of the volunteer
- Increased capacity of volunteers to adopt new ideas
- Increased recruitment and retention
- Enhanced program image through the quality of volunteer work
- Lower risk of problems associated with lack of knowledge or skills
- Decreased distractions that keep volunteers from full participation
- Increased volunteer motivation and commitment
- Enhanced competence of the volunteer in their interactions with youth
Each training category in the Agelong Learning Model© will carry a different weight. The model is designed to be adapted to the needs of the individual, the program, and the community served.
Posted On
May 27, 2002For More Information
Source Documents
Related Practices
Related sites
Keywords:
- Login or register to post comments
-
- Print-friendly page
- Send to friend