The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 promises $4 billion to state goverments to use for training and employment services.  This is a lot of money to keep track of. $1 billion is allocated for dislocated worker employment and training activities, $.5Billion to the States for adult employment and training activities, and $750 million for a program of competitive grants for worker training and placement in high growth and emerging industry sectors. This stimulus appears to have money allocated for nearly all training activities. A good LMS like TrainingForce is going to be necessary to track all of this training.  State governments would be wise to invest in a system that is effective in tracking training needs and the completion of specific requirements.

Buying new equipment and upgrading systems can seem like a daunting task during a recession. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. According to ASTD, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes dollars just for training.   See the article here.  The stimulus package includes more than $5 billion in training for a variety of programs across a number of U.S. federal agencies.  The goal is to provide training and help citizens return to work. Ok, so there may be something for you in the stimulus package.  What does that mean for your training organization? Time to upgrade or purchase your LMS.  The TrainingForce LMS provides you with the financial flexibility to purchase what you need today.  This cost effective solution is also priced by module administrative user, not student or transaction, so you are only paying for what you need. By making adjustments in your training department, you’ll be ready for the next wave of students.  Once the recession has come to a close, your training department will be the well-oiled machine that you were hoping for.  And you thought the recession was a bad thing.

Oak Tree Systems is celebrating its' 15th year!  Starting in 1994, this company began as a small software business serving the needs of local for-profit training centers.  It has not only enjoyed working with for-profit and corporate training centers in North America., but also has served many organizations in Central America, Europe, Asia and Australia.  This year Oak Tree Systems will release the 6th generation of the LMS, TrainingForce, as well as new products and services.  

To tenure or not to tenure, that is the question, at least in the Washingston school districts.  According to an NY Times article, the Washington school systems are questioning whether or not to continue teacher tenure as we currently know it.  The school chancellor, Michelle Rhee, is proposing two different types of compensation programs.  These programs, as described in the article, would give good teachers the opportunity to be rewarded for a job well done while eliminating those teachers who are not on par with the outlined expectations.  I think this is a great idea.  Not only will good teachers be rewarded but our students will be stronger because of it.  As I wrote in an earlier article, good teachers need to have some incentive to continue working the way they do.  Teaching is not something everyone can do, at least not well, and it's high time we stopped thinking it is.  This plan would eliminate those who teach purely for the schedule and not for the love of kids or the love of learning.  Under this proposal some teachers, those with skill and ability, would see their salaries nearly double over the next two years.  The financial motivation alone will cause even the most mediocre teachers to step up their game so as not to be dismissed. I see two major flaws with the proposal. 1:  Who will replace the teachers that don't meet the standard?  Perhaps another equally unqualified teacher?  Or a recent college graduate with no classroom experience?  2:  Will superintendents be able to fire ineffective principals?  Let's not pretend that the teachers are the only ones to blame.  There are plenty of principals who turn a blind eye to incompetence just because the teacher is a friend.   Overall, I think it is a step in the right direction.

A few weeks ago I posted an article regarding the importance of the LMS in corporate training departments, especially during tough economic times.  The February 2008 edition of Chief Learning Officer confirms what I was already thinking.  Here’s the quote by Susan Lee, “The LMS is fast becoming the single most important learning technology investment for companies”.  This is due primarily to management’s growing support for training departments and the ability to directly tie training initiatives to the success of the organization.  Training may finally be getting the respect it deserves.

When NASCAR needed a learning management system to organize and manage safety and security training they turned to TrainingForce, by Oak Tree Systems.   TrainingForce offered NASCAR  an enterprise learning management solution at an affordable price.  NASCAR wanted  a solution that would centralize the training data for personnel that work at multiple race tracks.  They needed a way to determine who needed what training and when.  In December 2007, NASCAR purchased TrainingForce .  The TrainingForce interface included on-line administrator access, student self- registration and complete student transcripts, to name a few of the capabilities. In addition to providing all the capabilities that were needed, there was one unexpected surprise.  The TrainingForce interface had been so well organized and intuitive NASCAR was able to begin using the product from day one and utilize it to organize a training summit in the middle of January 2008, all without any formal training. NASCAR even provided internal training for a team of managers and administrators.  TrainingForce is a great example of how enterprise software can be affordable and easy to use.  Gone is the need for training organizations to overspend on LMS technology that is crucial to their mission.   With TrainingForce, organizations can now have the state of the art technology they need at a price that is in line with their budget.

A mid-western state transportation department has selected TrainingForce as its' learning management system.  Seeking a solution that would centralize training data and automate training processes for employees, this department found TrainingForce. TrainingForce is a learning management system that is designed specifically for managing the administrative side of any training organization. TrainingForce provides ease of use for students, with interactive on-line calendars, and intuitive registration processes.  For administrators, TrainingForce automates correspondence to students and record keeping for course completion. Managers benefit from robust reporting as well as real-time analytics about the success of the training organization. The overall benefit of the TrainingForce learning management system is cost savings.  This transportation department needed a system that would improve efficiency and production in the training organization, and at an affordable price.  The value in TrainingForce is its’ ability to decrease costs through increased efficiency in training organizations.  TrainingForce was implemented in December 2007.

Information technology, like many scientific fields, have been primarily a man's world, but a sea change is imminent. Successful women in IT are grooming the next generation for careers in fields that may have seemed like a boys-only club even 15 years ago. Recently, approximately 2oo girls from high schools from five states attended the seventh Women in Science and Technology Forum, hosted by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) and the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, according to a Union Leader article. The area's leading women in science and technology lead discussions and workshops to generate interest about their work in the fields of chemistry, biology, engineering and IT. Keynote speaker, Felicia Donovan, who serves as the IS manager at the Portsmouth Police Department for 10 years now, didn't think science and math were study options for her when she was a college student but later discovered an interest and aptitude for working with computers and now uses computer forensics to solve crimes. She was spreading the word to today's young women that these areas of study are open to all. Also this month, the March of Dimes partnered with Women in Technology to award the 2007 recipients of its Heroines in Technology Awards. Linda LaRoche, of Computer Systems Center Inc. was recognized at an annual awards dinner in early November for her technology work and also for her community service. CSCI works with SemperComm Foundation, a nonprofit that LaRoche founded in 2004 that provides communications equipment to service members at remote U.S. military bases all over the world. These are other news highlights were found on the National Center for Women and Information Technology web site, whose mission it is to ensure that women are fully represented in IT and computing. NCWIT offers research awards for women in the field, and the site includes professional profiles, job links and links to workshops and events.