Training is essential

By João Marques*

For starters, I should mention that I was inserted in an exceptional work team regarding relationship and team spirit.

I will dedicate this article to training incorporated in the projects to be developed.

I think that someone who is about to start a project should be asked if s/he needs any kind of training for help in testing, developing and installing that project.

I know training is a delicate issue because the budget can’t cover everything, and I do recognize that training only a few people can be quite expensive.

Although there are probably certain partnerships, I think they are not enough because they don’t allow everyone to have some kind of specific training needed throughout life.

I can say that, for the last project, I got the training I asked for but I believe that doesn’t always happen, or does it?

And as for the interns, training is probably limited...or is it the same?

Although they keep saying it is up to us to choose and propose some kind of training, I always hear that we don’t have enough training, and I think it is a reality.

* Collaborator of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit.

THE READER’S ADVISER COMMENTS

Dear João,

Training is mainly an attitude, and the one you are showing is fairly positive.

INESC Porto has made a great effort towards offering their collaborators some kind of training. I advise you to take a look at the Training Report for 2004-2006 available on the Intranet. You will see that INESC Porto has carried out 95 training actions involving 286 trainees. I will now tell you something you won’t find in the report: it involved 350 thousand euros, supported by the institution. Do these numbers surprise you?

Of course you are referring to yet another aspect which is training with the purpose of meeting a real need of a given project. I believe we are doing everything we can. The solution is not always perfect as we have to rationalize means, resources and schedules, but perfect is the enemy of great.

The frequency of the training sessions mentioned above was decided considering the recommendations of INESC Porto’s activity managers. The institution maintains the policy of privileging the qualification of its boards and collaborators and, for such, the Units’ coordinators and project managers are the ones identifying the needs. But it is also necessary that everyone helps, exercising self-analysis and self improvement, proposing their own training, as you identified as well.

The institutional attitude is to support everyone’s training, especially when facing needs. All contributions to keep us alert and to better organize ourselves considering this demand are welcome.