The physical environment in which training is conducted can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the training. Skills acquisition may be adversely affected by environments in which either those being trained or the trainers themselves feel uncomfortable, or the facilities are inadequate for the requirements of the training session.
Where participants are being brought to a central point for training, attention must be given to ensuring that their travel arrangements have been efficiently planned, that they are provided with adequate shelter, and that food and drink is available for them during the training period. Responsiveness to training will be significantly diminished if basic living needs have not been satisfactorily organised.
Training Venue Standards
Basic standars that would preferably be met by the areas or buildings to be used for training would include:
• accessibility to transportation;
• ease of access--buildings accessed by long flights of stairs or narrow entrances which may impede use of equipment should be avoided wherever possible;
• sufficient light and air movement, wherever possible avoiding environments in which extremes of temperature cannot be modified;
• sufficient space for the size of the training group--anything less than two to three square metres per participant is likely to become uncomfortable during all but very short training sessions;
• sufficient comfortable seating for all participants;
• sufficient tables or desks for all participants to use for taking notes or any revision assignments;
• freedom from noise in adjacent areas during training sessions;
• non-offensiveness to the cultural sensitivities of any of the officials to be trained;
• access to toilets and water;
Additional requirements, according to the content of the training session, could include:
• a single space sufficient to simulate the operation of a voting station and/or counting centre;
• room for the training group to break into small discussion or exercise groups;
• where required by training aids or sessions conducted at night, electricity supply and lighting systems.
It is important that intended venues for training are checked in advance to ensure that these basic facilities are available, and that water and toilet facilities and electricity supply (where required) actually work. School classrooms can often provide excellent training venues, but will be limited as to available times for use.
Facilities and Materials
Facilities and materials available at the training venue fall into two groups--the essential, without which training cannot proceed, and the optional, which may improve training presentation. Essential materials and facilities would include:
• training manuals and training aids;
• materials for group exercises and revision assignments;
• sufficient election materials, forms, and equipment (ballot boxes and seals, voting compartments, voting machines/computers where relevant) for participative use during the training session;
• spare staff procedures manuals and workbooks (or manuals for all staff attending, if these have not been distributed earlier);
• writing materials, including large sheets of paper for presentation of results of any group exercises;
• equipment on which training aids depend, such as overhead projectors, video recorders, television monitors, audio equipment, and the like.
• name tags for all participants;
• access to food and drink, especially for longer sessions.
Where training programs depend on training aids equipment, it is more cost-effective to seek venues already equipped (if available) than to purchase or lease such equipment solely for voting operations staff training purposes. All equipment to be used during the training session should be thoroughly checked by the trainer before the commencement of the session to ensure that it is working (and that the trainer knows how to operate it).
Optional facilities could be presentation aids such as black or white boards and appropriate writing materials, pointers, or staff comfort facilities for tea and coffee.
Set-Up Of Training Venue
The training venue should be set up well in advance of the commencement of the session.
This will both use the group's time more effectively and allow early identification (and replacement) of any missing materials and equipment. Requirements for materials and set-up of the venue should be comprehensively detailed in the trainer's manual (see Training Reference Materials).
Group Organisation
Experience in general has shown that when skills training groups have more than 15 or 16 members, the opportunities for skill practice and group interaction during the training session become limited. This should be the maximum group size. Where there are more than that number of staff in a single voting station, it may be preferable to train these staff together as a group.
However, once training groups contain more than twenty-five to thirty members, achieving any training effectiveness is difficult, particularly if those conducting the session are not professional trainers. Cost advantages of training larger groups are irrelevant if such training is ineffective.
In setting up the training session venue, trainers should consider the needs of participative training; for example, arranging lecture-style rows of desks with seats behind them creates barriers between trainer and trainee and discourages group interaction.
However, the needs and comfort of the group take precedence, both in seating arrangements (where some more participation-inducing styles of seating may be seen as too confronting by groups culturally attuned to a less participative educational style), organisation and frequency of rest and meal breaks, smoking restrictions, etc. On comfort issues, trainers should regularly consult with the group.
Encouraging Participation
Care should also be taken to encourage participation in group work and any simulations by women and minority community members of the training group who may not normally have such open opportunity. Where the group has to be divided into smaller groups for particular training activities, trainers should also ensure that small groups members are assigned so as to bring a range of experience and personality styles to each small group.
Use of Training Aids
When using training aids, it must be remembered that these are aids to facilitate communication of specific issues. They are not the substance of training. Too heavy a reliance on static training aids can become expensive and limit the opportunity for interactive learning and skills practice that is the basis of acquiring task competencies.
Apart from the important use of election materials and equipment in simulations of voting station activities, aids that could normally be used include:
• Procedures manuals, detailing in simple language and/or pictorially the procedures to be applied by voting operations staff; wherever possible, staff should be provided with these manuals in sufficient time for them to have read them prior to their training session.
• Staff workbooks, in which voting operations officials, either before, during, or after their training are required to answer questions on their duties and return these for checking by trainers as an aid to knowledge assessment (see Knowledge Assessment); where there are separate training sessions for staff having specific functions to perform (particularly where they are involved in delivering special voting services separate functionally based workbooks for knowledge assessment in these different functional areas will be useful.
• Overhead projections are useful for summarising and emphasising key issues, but not for imparting large volumes of printed information; reliance on too many overhead projections can lead to the trainer spending more time talking to the screen than to the group;
• Video materials could be used in two ways: to set the atmosphere for the voting station environment, or to illustrate particular voting station procedures being carried out correctly, including such subjects as crowd control measures, security awareness, checking voter identity, issuing of voting materials to voters, use of voting machines/computers, packaging of materials, completion of voting station reconciliations, and documentation;
• Audio presentations of procedures may be useful, similar to videos, for procedures where there is meant to be verbal interaction between the polling official and voters, for example, checking of identity, checking the correct name on voters lists, and issuing voting materials.
Video materials should be used sparingly, as short procedural demonstrations of no more than three to five minutes at a time. They cannot be a substitute for practical work by the group, but they can be a useful introduction to simulations of particular procedures and can provide an attention stimulating break from the trainer's style.
Such training aids will only be usefully integrated into training programs if the facilities for their use are likely to be available in all the venues used. To design a training session around such aids, without knowledge of facilities available for their use, may be wasteful and may make the trainer's task very difficult, if not impossible.
Remote Locations
For some training needs, such as for staff of voting locations in a foreign country and in very remote rural areas, face-to-face training may not be possible and reliance for training will be placed on the aids developed.
In these cases, video and audio material, if the facilities for their use are available, can be of great assistance in demonstrating the procedures outlined in manuals and workbooks provided to staff. However, such video or audio media are useful additions, if cost-effective, but not essential for such training.
