Validation: Cost effective external evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of any training system or organisation is to produce a trained person who can successfully perform specific tasks in the workplace. If these tasks cannot be performed to a required standard, then the training has failed. In fact, the quality control process of ensuring that a particular course meets the job requirements, by investigating the trained person on the job, is arguably the most important phase in a training system. After all, if a person performs well in the workplace there is probably nothing significantly wrong with the training course, and any necessary corrective measures will be concerned more with the efficiency of the training.

Despite the importance of this process, external evaluation (or 'validation') has been neglected in the past and only now is gaining the recognition it deserves. Current training legislation (NSW, 1989) attempts to ensure quality training in a cooperative industrial context. For the future, much will depend on the emphasis policy makers place on quality control, and in particular on validation (Bright, 1990). This paper describes the validation process and demonstrates that a relatively simple and cost-effective validation unit can be of considerable benefit to any organisation involved in training.