Education
An Agency's Approach
The agency is a local continuing education program developing a new learning plan for unemployed workers hoping to hone their skills and return to the workforce. Their approach in developing this plan uses include defining the student population (unemployed and underemployed workers), their learning objectives (to gain employment in a better-paying job), and they are using a filter approach combined with a rating approach to decide the objectives and programming necessary for the plan. They want to work with some of the largest employers in the area to develop training objectives that will put workers back to work, and train them in the skills necessary to work for these employers. They will rank the employers by their needs, and develop continuing education programs to meet these needs. They will also work with government agencies that provide funding for re-educating unemployed workers to help with the funding of the program.
The strengths of this program development plan are obvious. They will be developing programming that is extremely viable in this troubled economy, and they will have at least some government or social agency involvement in the program, along with the emotional investment of some large local organizations. The program uses good planning models to develop and create the program, and the planners are aware of the program's intended audience, purpose, and topics. However, there are some weaknesses to the idea, too. They need to develop comprehensive training that is both affordable and retrains workers for new jobs, so they need to identify the top employment needs of different employers, and design curriculum to meet those needs. The problem is that if they only train in certain areas, the employers may no longer have a need in those areas, and other training will have to be identified and developed, which could be costly and inefficient for the program. Another weakness is governments or agencies running out of funding, which could lead to the destruction of the program.
