Until recently, ITD employees who were looking for training classes found out about the schedule from their supervisors, word of mouth or from a message board in the common areas. Often, those interested in a particular training found out too late or were unaware the class they wanted was held elsewhere in the state.

Now anyone with access to the Intranet can view the new training calendar of district- and headquarter-sponsored classes. If you were to view the calendar today, you would see everything from Microsoft computer software classes in headquarters to Hazmat, WAQTC and First Aid/CPR classes offered in the districts.

“What (the online schedule) allows us now is to have all of our internal training in one place and we can go check one place,” said Jim Phillips, Organizational Development Specialist in the headquarters-training center.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m in a shed in the far reaches of the state, as long as I have the Intranet, I can find out what training is available. If I’m interested in professional development, I’m at nobody’s mercy but my own in terms of looking at it and seeing what’s available.”

The training calendar can be accessed through the “Calendars” or “Training” tab on the Intranet portal page. In the future, the calendar will be available on the ITD public website, featuring classes that are offered to contractors.

At the site, if you hover the cursor over each class, the full title will appear; click on the class and a new window will provide contact information, location, and class description.

Soon the site will feature a link to the 733 Form, needed to register for a training class. The date the class begins is shown in a green font. If the class is more than one day, the class title is grayed-out on the following dates.

The information about the class will only be on the start date.

At the top of the calendar, the user can toggle from month to month. The user also can customize the calendar so that it shows only the classes in his/her district, the whole organization or any combination of districts and headquarters by checking or un-checking each district number.

The “search” feature allows an employee to find training sessions by typing in the entire title of the class or key words in the title such as: asphalt, first-aid, communication or stress. This feature also can be customized by district.

The calendar was a collaborative effort involving the Headquarters Training Department, which deals with computer and professional development classes; The Division of Highways Training Department, which deals with technical training and coordinates classes with the Federal Highway Administration; and the EST (equal opportunity/safety/training) representatives in each district.

“We started working on this last spring,” said Phillips. “We got input from folks in the districts, DOH Training and Web Services and then the folks in Web Services put it together for us.

“Because the directions for class registration can be incorporated in the class information, the new calendar reminds everyone that an ITD Form 733 must be signed by the supervisor, (or, if in the districts the ESTs), before being sent to the contact person for the class. It can help alleviate problems that occur by not following the proper procedure.”