Managing Training Plans

This chapter provides an overview of training plans and discusses how to:

• Set up training plans.

• Generate training plan reports.

See Also

(FRA) Managing French Regulatory Requirements

Understanding Training Plans

A training plan identifies the training that learners are expected to complete over a stated period of time. Each training plan pertains to a single company or learning environment and can be designed to meet one or more high-level learning objectives.

You can use training plans to:

• Estimate the demand for learning.

• Project the cost of delivering training.

• Compare training budgets to estimated training costs.

• Report actual training for a defined period.

Note. (FRA) Organizations that operate in France can generate training plans that satisfy the Workers’ Council requirements for reporting forecasted training.

You can create multiple plans for the same time period. For example, you might produce an annual training plan by company, and produce separate quarterly plans by learning environment.

You can also generate training plans for the current period or a future period. Plans are based on activity enrollments and learning requests. Plans do not include supplemental learning or program registrations.

Training Plans and Training Budgets

When you generate a training plan, you specify the period of time it covers, the learning environment or company it represents, the objectives, and, optionally, the training budget for each department. The system produces two reports: the training plan and a training plan budget:

• Training plan

  This report lists all activities and learning requests that meet the parameters defined on the run control page and the training plan setup page. For each activity, it lists the learner’s employee ID, name, organization, and other details. Activities are sorted by global objective. The report also lists learning requests and the number of learners associated with each request. The enrolled date on the report represents the date the enrollment record was created.

• Training plan budget

  This report includes the same information as the training plan plus the budgeted training amount for each department and the forecasted cost of delivering the training listed for each department. Information is sorted by department rather than by global objective.

Note. (FRA) When French features are enabled for the administrator's learning environment, the reports also include head counts of learners by age, gender, learning classification, employee category, and other information that is required by the Workers’ Council. The labor agreement and related category codes that appear on the report are defined in PeopleSoft Human Resources. A DIF (Droit Individuel à la Formation) indicator on the report is selected when DIF hours are specified for an enrollment request.

Report Formats

You can generate training plans in several formats, including PDF and CSV (comma separated value). Files generated in CSV format can be opened with Microsoft Excel, enabling you to modify the format and content of the reports to meet your requirements.

Forecasted Learning Costs

In the training plan budget report, the system lists the total forecasted training cost for each department, along with the forecasted cost for each related learning request and activity enrollment record.

For learning requests, the system uses the estimated (flat) cost per learner that you enter when submitting the learning request.

For enrollment records, forecasted costs can be based on an estimated flat amount per learner, or on an hourly amount per learner multiplied by the number of hours defined for an activity's components. If both cost figures are available, and component durations are defined for the activity, the estimated hourly cost takes precedence.

For activities, the default rules for using estimated flat and hourly costs work as follows:

• You can define system-wide default values for the estimated cost and hourly cost through the Install Defaults component.

• Learning environments inherit the default cost values from the Install Defaults component.

  You can override both values by learning environment.

• Catalog items inherit the estimated cost from the learning environment.

  You can override this value for a catalog item.

• Delivery methods inherit the default estimated cost from the catalog item and the default hourly cost from the learning environment.

  You can override both default values for a delivery method.

• Learning activities inherit the cost values from the delivery method.

  These values do not appear in the Activity component and cannot be overridden.

Data Selection for Reports

To determine which enrollment records and learning requests to include in the training plan report, the system refers to the parameters that you define on the Training Plan Setup page and the criteria entered on the Training Plan run control page.

On the Training Plan Setup page you specify the status of the enrollment records and learning requests that can be included in current and future training plans. For example, you may want to include completed activities in current plans but not in future plans. You define these rules during system configuration.

On Training Plan run control page, the administrator enters an As of date, Start Date, End Date, and other filtering criteria to specify which records to include in the report.

For an enrollment record to be included in a training plan, all of the following conditions must be met:

• The activity's defined Start Date or End Date must fall within the Start Date and End Date defined on the run control page.

• The creation date of the enrollment record must be on or before the 'as of' date defined on the run control page.

• The enrollment record must be associated with the learning environment or company defined on the run control page.

• The status of the enrollment record on the date you generate the report must match a status selected on the Training Plan Setup page.

For a learning request to be included in the report, all of the following conditions must be met:

• The start date entered on the request must fall within the Start Date and End Date defined for the plan on the run control page.

• The creation date of the learning request must be on or before the 'as of' date defined on the run control page.

• The learning environment or company that is associated with the learning request must match the learning environment or company selected on the run control page.

  You associate a learning environment and company with a learning request when submitting a request. By default, a request inherits the requester's learning environment and the company associated with the requester's job.

• The status of the learning request must match a status selected on the Training Plan Setup page.

Setting Up Training Plans

This section provides an overview of training plan setup and discusses how to define statuses for actual (current) and future training plans.

Understanding Training Plan Setup

Before you can generate training plans, you must identify which catalog items and learning requests your plans can include, define default values for calculating estimated costs, and complete other setup tasks.

The setup steps that are described here are presented in two sections: implementation tasks and plan preparation tasks.

Implementation Tasks

Complete the following tasks during system implementation. You can modify the setup later, as needed.

1. (Optional) Define global objectives.

   A global objective represents a broad learning goal that can be associated with a training plan, for example, a company-wide objective to improve teamwork or adopt new accounting standards. Information in the training plan is sorted by learning objective. Use the Objective Definition (LM_OBJV_TBL) component to identify global objectives.

   See Setting Up Objectives.

2. Define criteria for including activity enrollments and learning requests in current or future training plans.

   The system refers to the status of a learner’s activity enrollment record or learning request to determine whether to include the learning in a training plan. Use the Training Plan Setup page to specify which enrollment and learning request statuses to associate with future plans and which statuses to associate with current plans.

   See Defining Statuses for Actual and Future Training Plans.

3. (FRA) Review learning classifications.

   French organizations are required to classify planned and actual learning according to legally defined categories, such as job adaptation and job evolution. Enterprise Learning Management delivers learning classifications as system data.

   See Reviewing and Defining Learning Classifications.

4. Define default values for estimating learning costs.

   For each learning environment, define the estimated (flat) cost per learner and the estimated hourly cost per learner on the Learning Environment - Defaults page. (Learning environments inherit the default costs values from the Install Defaults component.)

   See Defining Default Values for a Learning Environment.

5. When adding catalog items and activities to the learning catalog, complete the following tasks for learning that you want to include in training plans:

   • (Optional) Assign a default learning classification to each catalog item and enter the estimated (flat) cost using the Item Details page.

     See Creating Catalog Items.

     Note. You can use the Learner Roster page to associate a training classification with a learner's activity enrollment record or update the classification.

   • (Optional) Assign a global objective to each catalog item on the Items - Attributes page.

     Global objectives are used to sort data in the training plans. If a catalog item has no global objective, all training related to that item is listed on the training plan under a Not Classified category.

     See Creating Catalog Items.

   • Enter the estimated cost, by delivery method, for each catalog item.

     Update the estimated (flat) cost and the hourly cost per learner on the Delivery Method page.

     See Defining Delivery Methods for Catalog Items.

   • For each activity, enter the duration of the constituent learning components.

     This step is only necessary when you want the system to calculate estimated costs based on the hourly amount.

Plan Preparation Tasks

After you complete the implementation tasks, identify the demand for learning. Demand is based on activity enrollment records and learning requests. The system automatically takes into account any enrollment records that meet the training plan setup and run control parameters.

To also use learning requests to quantify the demand for learning:

1. Use the Submit Learning Requests (LM_ADM_LRQ_ASSGN) component to enter learning requests.

   On the Submit Learning Requests - Details: Training Plan Attributes page specify if the request is eligible for inclusion in the training plans and enter additional attributes for the request.

   (FRA) If French features are enabled for your learning environment, and you are submitting a request for seats (rather than naming individual learners), you can complete the French fields at the bottom of the Training Plan Attributes page for head count information required by the Workers' Council.

2. Update learning requests submitted by learners and managers.

   Use the Maintain Learning Request: Training Plan Attributes page to make these requests eligible for inclusion in training plans and enter the estimated costs, global objective, and other information.

See Managing Learning Requests.

Page Used to Define Statuses for Actual and Future Training Plans

Defining Statuses for Actual and Future Training Plans

Access the Training Plan Setup page.

When you generate a training plan, you specify the plan's start date and an as of date. If the as of date is before the start date, the plan is considered a future plan, and the system considers the enrollment and request statuses defined in the Consider for future plan column on this page. If the as of date is after the start date, the plan is considered an actual plan, and the system considers the enrollment and request statuses defined in the Consider for actual plan column.

See Enrollment and Registration Statuses.

Generating Training Plans

This section discusses how to generate training plan reports.

Page Used to Produce Training Plans

Generating Training Plans

Access the Training Plan page.

As of Date	This date serves two purposes: It is used to filter the learning that appears in the report. To be included in the report, an enrollment record or learning request must have been created on or before this date. For activities, the creation date represents the date enrollment was initiated (rather than approved) or, in the case of planned learning, was added to a user's personal learning plan. For learning requests, the creation date represents the date the request was submitted. It determines whether you are generating an actual (current) plan or a future plan so that the system can apply the appropriate set of status filters as defined on the Training Plan Setup page. If the as of date is after the Start Date (entered in the next field), you are generating an actual plan. If the as of date is before the Start Date, you are generating a future plan. For example, if the As of Date is November 30, 2006 and the Start Date is January 1, 2007, the system knows that you are creating a future plan. It refers to the statuses defined in the Consider for future plan column of the Training Plan Setup page to further filter the enrollment records and learning requests for the report. By selecting an as of date that is before today's date, you can view the plan as it was in the past. For example, if on November 28 you want to see the plan as of September 30, enter September 30 in this field. The extraction process will only consider enrollment records that existed on September 30 (provided the activity begins and ends within the timeframe specified by the Start Date and End Date fields). Note. If you generate the plan more than once using the same As of Date, it will reflect subsequent changes to enrollment. For example, if activities that were initially included have been dropped, they will no longer appear in the report.
Start Date and End Date	For an enrollment record to be included in the training plan report, the Start Date and End Date defined on the Activity Details page must fall on or between the dates entered here. For a learning request to be included in the report, the Start date defined for the request must fall between the dates entered here.
Learning Environment	To generate the plan for a particular learning environment, select the learning environment here. For an enrollment record to be included in the training plan report, the learner must be associated with the selected learning environment. For a learning request to be included in the training plan report, the request must be affiliated with the selected learning environment. By default, a learning request is affliliated with the requester's learning environment. The administrator can override the learning environment for a request through the Maintain Learning Requests component. (When a learning request represents more than one learner or seat, the same learning environment applies to the entire request.) Note. You must select a learning environment or a company.
Company	To generate the plan for a particular company, select the company here. For an enrollment record to be included in the training plan report, the learner's job must be associated with the selected company. For a learning request to be included in the training plan report, the request must be affiliated with the selected company. By default, a learning request is affliliated with the requester's company, which is based on job title. The administrator can override a request's company through the Maintain Learning Requests component. (When a learning request represents more than one learner or seat, the same company applies to the entire request.)
Finalization Date	This field provides a way to freeze a future training plan so that you can identify enrollment records and learning requeests that are added after the plan's approval. Enter the cut-off date for including enrollments in the report. The system compares the creation date of each enrollment record or learning request that is selected for the report to the finalization date. If the creation date after the finalization date, the report includes a N in the In Plan column of the report. If you do not enter a finalization date, all training listed in the plan is considered to be part of the original plan. For example, say that on November 30 you complete the preparation of next year's training plan. You want to preserve the plan so that you can monitor changes that are made throughout the year. When you run the report again in February with a Finalization date of November 30, an N appears next to the enrollment records and learning requests that were created after November 30. (FRA) French customers can use this feature to identify the date on which the training plan is presented to the Worker's Council. New enrollments that occur after the finalization date are considered to be outside of the plan.

Assign Global Objectives

Select the global objectives for the training plan. Information in the plan is sorted by global objective. Activities and learning requests with a global objective that differs from the plan’s objectives are listed at the end of the global objectives. Activities and learning requests that have no global objective are listed at the end of the report under the heading Not Classified. All global objectives that you select here are listed in the report, even if none of the reported activities and learning requests are designed to meet the objective. This helps you spot unsupported global objectives and revise your training plan as needed.

Training Budget by Department

Enter the budgeted training amount for each department that is associated with the selected learning environment or company.