Having a training record in place for staff is something many businesses should have as a matter of course. With the incoming kickstart job scheme, it has become clear the government will require proof that any staff members you take on board will require training to upskill them for future employment. In this post, we provide a basic training record document, as well as our methodology for using it. It doesn’t have to be just for your Kickstart employees, we recommend using it for your entire team.
The Kickstart Job Scheme that was discussed way back in July, has finally had details released. Whilst the fine print now seems to be much more aligned to big businesses. Primarily due to the fact that to apply directly you must be submitting 30 placements. There are ways in which you, as a smaller business, can apply as a collective and take advantage. We ourselves have applied to utilise this scheme through our local chamber of commerce.
What has become clear is focus that all employers, large or small, must take on training their employees whilst the placement is in place. In this guide, we include a free to download training document to record interactions and training with your placement. This is something we encourage all businesses to complete and benefit from, for all of their staff.
Free To Download Training Record For Staff
We have provided a free to download staff training record. It is the very training record that we use internally for our own team and their continual professional development. In this article, we will explore the benefits of using a staff training record, and why it is important to keep one for the kickstart job scheme.
Why Keep Staff Training Records?
People often wonder why items like staff training records are used. With many focussing on the fact that a training record can be relied on when an employee isn’t performing to their required levels. Whilst this is of course true. There are far more positive uses of a staff training record.
High performance work practices, such as maintaining staff training records, and encouraging ongoing professional development leads to better outcomes for both businesses and their staff. A maintained training document should also form a basis of promoting employee participation with business processes, performance management and highlighting the need for ongoing training.
The staff training record is one tool, in an array of tools to promote positive employee engagement and interactions. If you are implementing this for the first time, use it as an opportunity to discuss training requirements with your team. It may be there is a gap that the employee has not felt comfortable raising, until now.
The Kickstarter Job Scheme Requirement For Training Records
Explicitly, the kickstart scheme requires the applicant to “include how you will help the participants to develop their skills and experience”. Our view is that any training and mentoring offered will need to be backed up with evidence, should the employer be asked. The employee training record delivers just that. A demonstrable timeline of all training that has occurred for each employee whilst working within the organisation.
Completing The Employee Training Record
The employee training record only contains a few elements pertaining to the training itself. This being:
The Name Of The Employee Training
This outlines the training that was given to the employee. Keep it simple, if you aren’t an ISO accredited company and there are no training or process documents to go with the training, make sure you can identify what was covered.
Date
This is the date of the training.
Name of Trainer
Name of the person conducting the training.
Employee Signature
The signature of the employee, we personally only get the employee to sign for this once they are competent in completing the action. We will discuss why shortly.
Employee Signature, Signing Off To Demonstrate Competence
By ensuring an employee only signs off the staff training record once they are competent. The reason we ensure we do this in such a fashion relates to the earlier point about high performance work practices. The rationale behind an employee signing off on their competence is simple. We shouldn’t be expecting staff members to complete works they don’t feel capable of delivering. The act of signing off on competence, promotes the opportunity for staff members to ask questions on certain topics. From a business perspective, we aren’t expecting staff members to be given a set of training, which may not have adequately met their own personal needs, then expecting them to complete a job. Doing so may simply create more corrective action for others, whilst demotivating the employee.