Training of staff for voting operations is a complex process for which careful planning is essential to bring together the varied information inputs into a cohesive system to allow effective, reliable training delivery at the grass-roots level. Quality of planning for this training is enhanced if it is undertaken at both strategic and operational levels.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning for voting operations training is needed to identify:
• training objectives, target groups for training, and required learning outcomes
• appropriate mixes of methodologies for target groups and regions;
• materials development requirements
• training evaluation systems
• overall training resource requirements.
In developing training materials under the strategic plan, care must be taken to allow sufficient flexibility to handle any changes to legal or operational frameworks that may occur close to the election date.
This strategic planning is necessary for properly focusing operational training plans. It is highly preferable that this level of planning is maintained on a continuous basis. To initiate training planning at the announcement of an election runs the risks of strategy being merely an ad hoc reactive response to very time-sensitive operational needs. This is not likely to deliver the most cost-effective training.
Operational Plans
Training operational plans should identify:
• the training functions to be undertaken and their location and timing;
• detailed resource needs for training;
• the personal responsibilities and accountabilities for training management and delivery.
They may be prepared and implemented centrally, or, if cascade training models are used, there is the opportunity to devolve much of the planning to regional or local levels.
Operational plans for voting operations training may be able to be partially prepared prior to the final determination of voting locations and numbers of staff to be employed at each location, but will require review and possibly amendment once these are known. Early identification of voting locations and numbers of staff to be recruited will certainly assist training planning.
Operational training plans would usually detail both the procedural training requirements for voting operations staff, and any training of trainers that has to be implemented. Issues that need to be defined in the operational training plans include:
• the numbers of staff to be trained, categorised into any separate target groups determined under the strategic plan
• the methodology by which each of these target groups is to be trained
• the scheduling of training
• production and distribution of materials required for training
• the trainers to be assigned to each training session, including any arrangements for contracting training functions
• the locations to be used for training, their reservation, and the numbers of staff to be trained at each location
• the transportation, accommodations, and communications required to support trainers and voting operations officials attending training;
• logistics for distribution of training materials and equipment;
• the methods and resources required for knowledge assessment
• the methods, scheduling, and resources needed for monitoring and evaluating training consistency and quality
• contingency plans for emergency or remedial retraining;
• costs of training;
• any contributions required to training of persons not employed by the electoral management body, for example, representatives of political parties or candidates, observers, and security forces
Training operational plans need to be integrated with materials supply, logistics, and recruitment planning, as well as with financial management planning and review cycles.
