you took the class, but what did you learn?

I was so bummed out while we were visiting Denver last week, as I didn't get to hang out with a good friend of mine because he had to work overtime at the last minute. He is a supervisor over some cable installation techs and there shouldn't have been a problem, but when one of his techs apparently didn't know what he was doing, my friend had to clean up the mess. It's a shame really. My friend said that he doesn't know why the tech screwed up the installation so bad, as he had been fully trained. Unfortunately, it appears that my friend has fallen prey to the same dilemma that many companies face. They pay their employees to attend a training seminar, but they have no way of knowing whether the employee walks away with the knowledge that he needs to do the job correctly.

The way I see it, my friend (as their boss) has two options to avoid this problem in the future. Either test all of his techs for proficiency after training (which can be expensive and time-consuming), or pick up some sort of training management software to streamline everything. I think he's going to opt for the latter choice, so as to not find himself working late nights every now and then to cover his techs' mistakes. Conductor is great software because they let you try it out for free for 30 days. In my friend's case, they do so many jobs that he should be able to see results within a week or two...basically as soon as he has managed to design his training program and have his techs complete it. As a bonus, the software allows integration of many of the extensive requirements of groups like OSHA, ISO, and the JCAHO. It also allows you to setup filters so that you can better organize who you are training, and what modules they can (or need to) access.

I can't see any reason why more businesses wouldn't opt to use a piece of software like this, short of not knowing that it exists.