Running head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT CYCLE

Needs Assessment Cycle

Sundus Saad
CUR/528
April 27, 2015
Susan Kater

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Needs Assessment Cycle

Iraqi Civil society Institute (ICSI) needs training programs when there is an issue or a
problem in the organization outcomes, or when some failure in implementing any of our projects
takes place. Obviously, effective training is paramount in any organization or institute. Our
training plan will address all gaps and provide the necessary training to accomplish a good
performance that assures the satisfaction of our clients.
Let us start by giving the meaning of Needs Assessment. It is a process to identify and
measure areas, target audience, and needs to do performance improvement, make decisions and
determining the methods to achieve the goals, and considers if the problem can be solved by
training. Usually, needs assessment takes place before the activities is carried out. However,
there are three stages Needs assessment should include:
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Pre- assessment: Which means collecting data to be a foundation of a gap Analysis

Actual assessment: Is to evaluate the data, such as asking about barriers, needs,
volume of gaps, priorities, and resources.

Action plan: It means how to work to translate what we have into what they need.

A key component of effective learning planning is the ability to analyze development

needs in an effective way. When the development needs are being neglected over a period of
time, real risks will face the organization and its survival. Instead, when there is a frequently
analyze, monitoring and acted upon, the needs will be correctly identified and good decisions
will be made at all levels to get use of resources, skills and competencies of audience to improve
the organizations performance. In this individual assignment, I will identify a course, training, or
program for the needs assessment, identify the purpose, level of assessment, stakeholders, budget
and available resources, and time allotted for the assessment, identify the specific information

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you need to measure using the needs assessment, and determine whether information already
exists or if information must be obtained from resources. Also, I will use the eight steps in needs
assessment (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2010). Finally, all trainees will answer a post training
survey. (Appendix 1)
Step 1:- Clearly understand:
a. The purpose of the needs assessment is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
training program. Also, to allow us to understand how all parties involved in the program view
and comprehend the program in general.
b. The level of assessment will be in all department of ICSI and we will invite
international organization to participate in the program and feed us back. Some of the community
leaders will fund the training.
c. There are some stakeholders who have a great interest in ICSI vison and mission. 1The instructor trainees: Group of students have the most to gain from previous similar trainings.
2- ICSIs program manager, financial committee, members of Board of Trustee, 5 key
community leaders, ACCESS, and press media. This group is responsible for curriculum
development, testing and evaluation procedures, continuously assesses the program.
3- Representative of the UN offices in our area.
d. We have got some confirmation to fund our program from number of key community
leaders, UN, and our Board of Trustee. The needs assessment will determine if we need more
fund to implement more trainings. Many resources will be available for instructor (computers,
Internet connection, smart boards, and all the required stationary.
e. Time allotted for the project is (6 week classes). (See the timetable please)

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Week
Week one

Week 2

Activities
- The opening of sessions and welcoming.
-

Orientation procedures

Provide enough information about the program and explain

the reasons behind it

Expose the strengths and weakness about the performance
for the past period.

Week 3

Discussing the reasons behind the problems in ICSIRAQ

Observing and teaching how to benefit from other
organizations experiences.

Week 4

Teaching how to write and present good projects

Effective communications ( oral and verbal communication)

Teach democracy concepts, human rights, civic education
and civil society

Week 5

Teach how to communicate with organizations from different

cultures and backgrounds

Observe and observe stress management, behavior, conflict
management, team development, discipline, performance

Week 6

management, and functions of management.

Take the test materials from Testing and Evaluation

Administering tests, accounting for test booklets/answer

sheets.

Graduation procedures.

Graduation ceremonies.

Step 2:- Identify the specific information you need to acquire.

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Knowledge: Knowledge is essential parts of principles, techniques, and methods of

instructions when using the visual aids, learning processes, curriculum development
education and training evaluation; and counseling methods and techniques.

Education: Education is very important element in our work. We can depend on

illiterate people by doing helping them, but we cannot ask them to write project for
example or writing narrative and financial reports to be presented to the funder. Our
employee should have at least Bachelor degree and acquiring proficient Arabic and
English languages.

Training: The training needs to have all updating information regarding Civil
Education and Civil Society. We have to use principles that other professional
organizations use before or even design.

Experience: We need to put some criteria to participate in this extensive training. We

need to present experts in organizational environment. Using the experiences of
others will be a great help for improving the performance of the organization.

Step 3:- Determine whether the information already exists or can be obtained with your
resources. We wont reinventing-the wheel. We will ask other organizations and get use of
their experiences of how to compare or make sure that we will add new knowledge.
Step 4:- Design the methodology and instrumentation (if necessary). This step will identify
what is necessary for the instructor and the participants to use the tools taught to measure the
curriculum's effectiveness. The participants will be teaching under the close supervision of the
trainer and will be evaluated on eighteen items that consists of: Question & answer techniques,
lesson content, control of discussion, transitions, summarizing, etc. The trainer will evaluate the
trainee using a rating scale of "Excellent,"(13-15 items rated Excellent) "Satisfactory, (13 or

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more items rated Satisfactory or higher)" "Needs Improvement (5 or more items rated Need
Improvement)."
Step 5:- Collect and analyze the data. Trainers used the instructor evaluation Checklist to assess
the competency of the trainee. The trainer observed (6 weeks) that the trainee taught without
help from the trainer, unless the trainee him/herself in trouble. After final evaluation the trainee
will be left alone to teach their own classes. The new instructor will know that they will have
scheduled evaluations by other instructors or be evaluated by the Director of Education. Test
scores will be observed by the trainer and the Testing and Evaluations section, looking for trends
of failures and successes.
Steps 6:- Prepare the report. It is very important to write multiple drafts in writing the reports.
The first is going to talking about the main idea. The second, outlined the program. And the third,
is going make editing for the entire report.

Step 7. Share and present preliminary results to key stakeholders to obtain their feedback.
It is very important to keep the stakeholders being involved in the process to get their feedback
before, during and after the training. Share the preliminary results with key stakeholders- Not
including principle stakeholders to provide feedback could be problematic for a number of
reason (Amode&Gal, 1997).
Step 8:- Formally disseminate results. A report will be sent for monitoring and assessment
committee to present final reports and recommendations regarding the needs assessment for the
training program.

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References

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Amodwo, M., & Gale, C. (1997). Strategies for ensuring use of needs assessment findings:
Experiences of a community substance abuse prevention program, Journal of primary
prevention, 18(2), 227-242
Royse, D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. K. (2010). Program Evaluation: An Introduction (5th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.