2003/3

Minutes of the TEC meeting of 02.10.2003

Present: I. Bejar-Alonso, M. Burri, P. Carvalho Correia, S. Datta Cockerill A. Desirelli, J. Ferguson, S. Foffano, C. Granier, V. Marchal, E. Mosselmans, N. Polivka, J.M. Saint-Viteux, P. Sievers, M. Taborelli, M. Veyrat, D. Vitè

Excused:, F. Eder, J. Schinzel, M. Storr

1. Minutes of the last meeting and action points

J. Ferguson opened the meeting and welcomed new members V. Marchal from FI, C. Granier from HR and N. Polivka from AB. There were no comments on the last minutes which are therefore approved. The action points from the last meeting were reviewed:

• Minutes of the December 2002 TEC meeting – S. Foffano reported that despite continued attempts S. Weisz has been unable to produce minutes. It was decided that this action should be closed therefore unfortunately there will be no official record of this TEC meeting.
• Training attestation – S. Foffano thanked the DTO’s who had provided input on this point. The vast majority of replies confirmed that mass printing of paper attestations which is the current practice is no longer considered necessary if a self-service solution is provided. S. Foffano confirmed that a formal request had been made to AS Division in early July, requesting that a solution be found by the end of the year. Jean-Marc Saint-Viteux confirmed that an HRT solution could be provided by AS Division allowing any HRT user to request training followed from 1997 onwards. The current open question is how long after training on any internal programme can a participant request their attestation or training list. Action:
  S. Foffano to confirm. On the question of implementation, J. Ferguson confirmed that this functionality could probably be implemented by the end of the year.
  M. Burri questioned why systematically after each course all participants having followed the required percentage of the training could not receive the paper attestation from the teacher? It was felt that this would not reduce the amount of paper printed which was the main aim of this change.
• Follow-up information from Management & Communication questionnaire – S. Foffano confirmed that following the information published in the weekly and on the web, the DTO’s had received additional information as promised by L. Orr-Easo.
• Oracle & Java certification – D. Vitè confirmed that he and M. Storr were working on this, and that a report would be given at the next TEC meeting. Action: report certification at next TEC meeting
• Day/time of future TEC meetings – S. Foffano confirmed that Thursday afternoons seemed to suit the majority of DTO’s who had replied. M. Burri suggested that the meeting dates should be fixed in advance, and at the beginning of the year dates should be scheduled for the full year.

2. Report from JTB meetings of 19/06/2003 and 28/08/2003

J. Ferguson reported that the Core Development Package (CDP) had been the main subject of discussion at both the JTB meetings (Minutes at
http://cern.ch/hr-div/external/training/JTB/minutes_19_06_2003.asp 
and
http://cern.ch/hr-div/external/training/JTB/minutes_28_08_2003.asp ). 
Contrary to the original plan and following an intervention and request from J. Van der Boon during August, the CDP was presented at the Directorate meeting of 25/08/2003. The minutes of the JTB meeting of 28/08/2003 summarise the conclusions of the Directorate and the resulting JTB discussion. In short the Directorate had given support to the training and was in favour of the residential nature and networking opportunity however questioned the content and length. J. Ferguson confirmed that a 3 day CERN-specific pilot CDP had gone ahead end-September the content of which had been reviewed by HR-PMD and the Management & Communication working group. Feedback from the pilot will be discussed at the next JTB meeting scheduled for 21/10/2003. The current plan is to present the CDP at the Management Board meeting of 30/10/2003 for approval. 

Other topics covered at the JTB meetings were a report from the last TEC meeting, a discussion about exploitation of training information from MAPS, a review of the 2001 Training Plan and a report on Radiation Protection training. On the subject of MAPS J. Ferguson confirmed that a review of MAPS is taking place following the first 2 years of MAPS implementation. An electronic MAPS form is also under question with exploitable information including data on skills and competences to assist in training planning and career development.

3. Report from Academic and Technical Training Section (HR-PMD-ATT)

D. Vitè replacing Mick Storr reported that the 2003-2004 Academic Training Programme was being defined by the Academic Training Committee and the working groups with 2 lectures already foreseen before end 2003 and 7 for 2004. The web pages are regularly updated as new lectures are confirmed in addition to the usual Bulletin and printed publicity.

Concerning the Technical Training programme, HeREF-2003 - Helium Refrigeration Techniques is to be run for the second year in October, and thanks to the initiative of P. Sievers, the 4^th session of MAGNE-03 will be run in November. Many other new sessions are being organized, particularly on desktop applications. D. Vitè mentioned that a better agreement had been negotiated with the desktop training providers and as a result a minimum of only 3 participants is now accepted.

The Places available web page is updated very frequently and the DTO’s are encouraged to check this page regularly to identify potential participants within their Divisions or missing needs.
 http://cern.ch/hr-div/external/training/tech/te_main.asp. Training Room 24 will soon have its obsolete PC’s replaced to prepare for electronic design and special software courses.

Some interesting statistics were presented comparing Technical Training sessions from January to September between 1999 and 2003. Currently 2003 resembles 2001 with respect to the number of sessions and participants. Certain special training actions are not systematically recorded which is in the process of being changed to ensure that participants have all training recorded.

Finally the meetings during the summer months with the DTO’s were reported on. The aim of these meetings was to review the programme offer, identify special needs of the Divisions and review training information from the MAPS exercise. A full report of these meetings will be made and distributed to all DTO’s. Action: D. Vitè to complete and distribute report to all DTO’s.

Local Staff training actions were discussed at the meeting as a special need in addition to the Local Staff Induction session. Also the possible introduction of an end-of training exam/test for internal certification was evoked. Finally web-based training was discussed and the new possibility to run instructor-led web-based training in the Training Centre. There was a mixed reaction to the usefulness of this approach rather than the office approach, however both are possible. I. Bejar-Alonso confirmed that ST is very interested and willing to provide participants for a pilot instructor-led session if necessary.

The slides shown to accompany the presentation are available here

4) Report from Management, Communication & Language Training Section (HR-PMD-MCL)

S. Datta-Cockerill started by reviewing reactions from the 3 day CDP pilot session. The overall reaction from the13 participants was positive however suggestions had been made to improve the focus and variety of the content. The new programme was described and the speakers of the different modules were named. The post training

assessment showed that all participants learned and supported such trainng. A more detailed questionnaire will be filled in by all participants and individual discussions will also take place to maximize feedback on the pilot session. S. Datta-Cockerill acknowledged the work done by the working group comprising D. Duret, J. Purvis, N. Ellis and J. Pederson who had worked with HR-PMD on the content and the Case Study. DTO’s were encouraged to get input from their Divisional participants.

M. Taborelli questioned the next steps for this training and members were reminded that following a JTB discussion mid-October the training would be presented at the Management Board of 30/10. If approved 2 sessions are foreseen before end 2003. J. Ferguson confirmed that a Management Development part of the training would also be discussed following a proposal from HR-PMD. He questioned if a pilot of this follow-up part could be run before end 2003. 

S. Datta-Cockerill also outlined other new item on the programme, the pilot follow-up session to the Introduction to Management (Bridge-Building) course. The pilot was launched along same lines – outdoor activity, indoor debrief/learning and the 9 pilot participants were picked from previous participants of Introduction to Management (3CM) and Team Building (6CM). C. Granier as participant confirmed that it had been a rich learning experience from the coaching and management point of view. E. Mosselmans (also participant) added that outdoor trainng is very powerful and effective for learning management & communication skills for those who learn best through experiencing and practicing in real-life situations.

The calendar of sessions from September to December and places available was presented with some advice on which part of the programme is targeted at which type of participant:

• Management training is for professional Staff in Career Path E and above and is bilingual

• Supervision training is for all CERN Staff supervising small teams and training is offered in either English or French

• Communication is open to all CERN Staff and is offered in both languages

• MAPS training is obligatory for all new supervisors

• Participants for Managing a CERN Unit should be appointed by the Division Leader

On Language Training DTO’s were encouraged to ensure that new arrivals in need of language training sign up as soon as possible. English Language courses will start in October and run to February 2004 and French Language courses will run from October to December in various levels. Progress tests will be run in February and December respectively.

The slides shown during the presentation are available here

5. Input from DTO’s on Training Plans and External Training

Following messages from S. Foffano in advance of the meeting to prepare for this discussion, DTO’s offered information from their Division as follows:

EP: M. Burri confirmed that she had contacted all 40 GL’s by email with a request for their input on Divisional Training Plans. 24 were subsequently interviewed including LHC Team Leaders. The general feeling in EP as a result of this feedback was that training plans should not be obligatory but are certainly useful in many cases for planning individual and project needs and career evolution. It was felt that the duration should not go more than 3 years in advance, and once a plan had been established, it should be adhered to and updated regularly. As the strong feeling is not to introduce more bureaucracy a more pro-active use of the MAPS training information was recommended.

Information on External Training had already been provided in advance of the meeting. M. Burri confirmed that in 2003 11% of the Divisional Training Budget had been committed to external training of which 2% was external long-term training i.e. leading to a diploma.

FI: On External Training M. Veyrat confirmed that it is seen within FI in the spirit of succession planning and career development and in the cases where people had completed an MBA or other qualification in areas such as Treasury or Cost Accounting they had all been promoted to either Section or Group Leader level. Generally 90% of the training fee is paid by FI and usually half or 1 day per week is granted in time.
On Training Plans there was agreement that they can be useful for certain people.

AT: P. Sievers confirmed that the AT rule is 1 course per staff per year for external training. Up to 1,000 CHF is financed by the Division and 5 training days/year are granted.

EST: M. Taborelli confirmed that there are currently 2 cases. The scheme set up by the TEC Working Group in 2002 chaired by Isabel Bejar-Alonso is used to define the financial and time compensation. Generally about half of the fees are paid by EST and 5.5 training days per year with some flexibility tolerated.
On training plans there should be a strong link with the career plan. It was pointed out that with the future re-organisation there is currently not a clear view of the career plan especially in lower levels of the hierarchy. J. Ferguson remarked that he was sympathetic to the current unusual situation.

AS: J-M. Saint-Viteux stated that 1 person in AS had benefited from Open University training where the Division paid 33% of the Training Fees and 5 training days/year were allocated. He confirmed that AS were prepared to pay a higher contribution if complementary to existing training or with direct relevance to career planning.
Similarly to EST, the future career planning is currently difficult however an electronic MAPS with better exploitation of training information was fully supported.

SPL:  P. Carvalho Correia confirmed that 33% of the Training Fees were paid by SPL and training days were offered. Currently 2 people are doing an MBA and 1 a Doctorate. 

HR: E. Mosselmans stated that the practice in HR was on a case by case basis. Short courses are fully paid by the Division and time is also offered. For Long-term training leading to a qualification, arrangements have varied from refusal due to non-relevance with current job, to time and money compensation.
On the Training Plans these have been implemented in the HR-SOC group only, however no feedback on their relevance or usefulness was given to the DTO. He commented that generally the training input from the MAPS exercise was of little or no use, and the link with any career planning was unclear. Finally he commented that evaluation tools were missing to measure the usefulness of training in the workplace by the hierarchy. J. Ferguson replied that the MAPS form is where the evaluation should be done, and perhaps it was only realistic to expect this to be done on an annual basis rather than systematically after 3 months.

TIS A. Desirelli is preparing information which will be supplied as soon as possible.

S. Foffano thanked the DTO’s for their work and encouraged those who have additional information to submit it as soon as possible. Action: DTO’s who have external Training information from their Division send to S. Foffano by 21/10/2003 (JTB meeting). A summary of the External  Training support is available here. J. Ferguson remarked that the practise was very varied and that the input would be of use to the future JTB discussion on this topic.
On a general discussion on the 2001 Training Plan and its recommendations it was felt that it was a good document however no longer realistic. The challenge for a future Training Plan will be to map the theory of the 2001 recommendations onto 2003 and 2004 reality. 

6). Any Other Business

Following a recent comment from a DTO, S. Foffano questioned if invitations to Management training should continue on paper or if email was accepted by everyone. There was agreement that only email should be sent, and that it should be clearer if the invitation was received as participant or as DTO.
Action: S. Datta-Cockerill to implement this change within the Management programme.   

It was decided that the next meeting will take place on November 13^th at 14:00.