The Joint Training Institute: By Frank Miramontes At all times, your Joint Training Institute (JTI) is working on your behalf, doing everything it can to promote quality and relevant training and education that will enhance both your day-to-day work on the job, and long-range professional careers. The year just ended, 2003, was no exception. The JTI started a “needs assessment” program throughout the Department of Water & Power in order to obtain an overall picture of how our programs have been working and, equally important, where the Institute’s future efforts must be directed. With the specific task of planning for the future in mind, the JTI began interviewing selected individuals representing different areas and work assignments within the Department. These one-on-one interviews were very productive; they pointed the Institute in the right direction, with respect to the job we must do in order to build and expand the job skill-sets of our workforce. We very much valued your opinions and on-the-job insights into what you really need and want in the area of quality education and training. Focus Group Follow-Up We followed-up our series of individual interviews with focus group discussions. In a focus group, a moderator discusses specific problems and goals with a selected group of people who are urged to be completely free with their opinions and ideas. The goal is a spirited given-and-take on a relevant single issue or connected series of issues. Focus groups are very popular; they are often used for advertising, marketing and even political campaigns as a way of assessing what a cross-section of people believe about certain products, policies or candidates. In our case, the JTI used the focus groups to follow up and expand on our individual interviews, allowing participants to “brainstorm” on education and training matters. This open and relaxed atmosphere was very conducive to letting one idea flow into another, to using one person’s input or experience to bring out similar—or new—thoughts from the other focus group members. The overall result was excellent and really relevant ideas and goals put forth by the participants. With this series of focus groups, the Institute completed the interview-phase of our “needs assessment” program. The results of these individual and group in-depth interviews are now being compiled by JTI members. The Next Step Next, the Institute is conducting a Department-wide individual survey. It is going on right now, and if you have not received information about this important questionnaire, you will very soon. I encourage every brother and sister to complete this survey fully and carefully so that we at the JTI can get the best-possible current “snapshot” of what needs have to be addressed in education and training, now and in the future. This survey is designed for you and to help you. With its results, we can best fashion a curriculum of relevant courses that will enhance your professional careers and ambitions. This is a very timely and excellent opportunity for your voice to be heard and documented with respect to the kind of training you need and want. Please be sure to complete and return this questionnaire! Through excellent cooperation between labor and management at the Department, your Joint Training Institute is continually working to improve an already highly trained, effective and safe workforce. I will report to you on the results of the Department-wide survey in the near future. |