Findings Versus Recommendations

Once you have gathered all your needs assessment data, it is time to extract some meaning from the data. As there are separate thought processes in data collection planning, so there are in data analysis as well. Data analysis (step 5 in the needs assessment process) consists of two thought processes that must be kept distinct:

  • identifying findings

  • developing recommendations based on the findings (figure 6-1).

    Figure 6-1. The training needs assessment process with step 5 highlighted.
    [View full size image]

    What’s the difference? To some needs assessors, there isn’t much difference, and that’s what gets them into ...

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