• Overview
• Approach
• Projects

Training Management Overview

In addition to providing customized design and delivery of training, World Learning can help match the right training provider with clients to ensure that trainees gain a greater understanding of specific topics and knowledge sets in the context of the world we live in.

Since 1982, World Learning has managed training programs that have reached more than 100,000 people from 1,500 institutions in more than 50 countries. Once the exact needs of a client organization have been identified, World Learning draws from both our deep experience and proprietary database of 1,950 training providers from around the world. These vetted trainers represent expertise in nearly every field imaginable, from sustainable development, to human resources, to agriculture management, to public health.

Results that Speak for Themselves:

• The owner of a Kosovo dairy production company has reported a 42% increase in production following a training program in Wisconsin.
• A Macedonian participant has founded a think tank whose mission is to foster lasting improvement in democracy and governance in Macedonia and in the broader Southeast Europe region.
• Fifteen local school organizations have been established in Macedonia, following the model observed in a US Study Tour.
• A small grant of less than $10,000 that was awarded to an Albanian participant following a local development training program resulted in additional farm revenue of $272,000 for 68 rural families.
  

Training Management – Our Approach

Four-Step Process:

Analysis – The process begins when a member of World Learning’s Capacity Building Services staff meets with a donor to analyze the specific needs of a program. The staffer will work with the client to determine the intent of the training, identify the target audience, understand the sector, develop measurement criteria, and find the best venue. The final step is to develop a Request for Training Proposals document.

Research – Once analysis is complete, World Learning matches the right training provider with exactly the needs of the client organization, using our proprietary database. We will assess language requirements, areas of expertise and technical considerations to ensure that the right training provider is placed with your organization. If trainees lack specific technical language skills, World Learning will hire an interpreter with relevant experience to ensure that the training is a success.

Negotiation – Once a client has approved a training provider, World Learning’s training experts work with both parties to review training components and budgets, before negotiating a final design. World Learning staffers draw on years of experience in a variety of fields during this stage.

Support – World Learning remains actively involved throughout the training, meeting regularly with both the client and trainers to ensure that the program is on track, often making site visits and recommending modifications if necessary. All programs conclude with both written and oral assessments, which are fed into a final client report.

Getting Started

For US Agency for International Development (USAID) Missions, World Learning’s training services are available to missions worldwide through the FORECAST Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC). We work closely with a variety of organizations under direct contracting arrangements as well.

Training Management Projects

World Learning has been managing training and capacity strengthening programs in Europe since 1992, under funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Currently the program is managed through several contracts:

Focus on Results: Enhancing Capacity across Sectors in Transition Countries (FORECAST)

World Learning was awarded this contract in 2005, and currently supports the USAID missions in Albania, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

FORECAST uses a comprehensive human and institutional capacity development (HICD) approach to assess performance gaps and to provide targeted interventions to address the gaps within workgroups and institutions. Following a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of individual and organizational performance, recommendations for possible performance solutions are made and implemented. The HICD approach is dependent on the participation and buy-in of all the stakeholders in the process, in order to ensure the sustainability of the resulting performance changes.

Under FORECAST, World Learning can provide assessments to identify performance gaps in partner institutions and the design and delivery or training and non-training interventions to address performance issues, together with monitoring and evaluation of these interventions. Interventions can include tailored training programs, academic programs, the provision of consultants and technical assistance, small grants, and follow-on activities.

The Community Connections Program  is one of the components of FORECAST.

Afghanistan Capacity Development Program

World Learning is responsible for arranging placements and monitoring the performance of long-term academics and short-term trainees from Afghanistan in sectors including local government, agriculture, public administration, and economics.

Technical Assistance for Policy Reform (TAPR II)

Working as a subcontractor to BearingPoint, World Learning is responsible for arranging placements and monitoring the performance of long-term academics and short-term trainees from Egypt in sectors including law, business management, commerce, and economics. Over the long term, this new cadre of training personnel will help guide Egyptian public policy towards private, market-based development solutions.

Training Program Design and Delivery

Since World Learning started participant training in Europe almost fourteen years ago, the delivery of these short-term (two weeks on average) training programs has been contracted out to nearly a thousand institutions in the US - colleges and universities, private institutions, minority institutions, business and professional associations - and to over 300 organizations within Central Europe. More than 45,000 professionals have been trained under this program (50% of whom are women) and over $12m is spent annually on participant training fees.