·Training Managers and park personnel are encouraged to include temporaries, seasonal, and volunteer personnel in training when possible/desirable.

A. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) standards will be used as a resource in developing needs assessment instruments and processes.

B. A summary of all training needed, as well as employee training history data, will be used in the development of new courses/programs.

A. Mandated training - training required by law or Executive Order.

·Prior to the training, the Course Coordinator or the Park Training Coordinator will send a cc:Mail message to the selectee's supervisor to notify him/her that a short-term follow-up evaluation will be required. The selectee will be informed of this requirement in his/her notification of selection.

·Approximately 60 days after completion of training, the Training Coordinator will send a follow-up cc:Mail message to the trainees' supervisor. Ideally, the computer program will automatically generate this message with an address list and send a reminder to the Course Coordinator.

·All certified training will provide completion certificates.
·All training, in order to be credited to an employee training history, must be certified for the specified career field.

·Training is certified if
(1) it has been approved by a Federal, State, or local licensing authority, and
(2) it is offered by a college, university, vocational, or professional organization or society.

·Managers need to work with Universities, etc., when possible, to establish accreditation.

·Work performed as part of an officially designated task force, Servicewide committee, or work group will be documented to the employee's official personnel file and/or training history upon successful completion of the task.

·Work performed on special details or in an acting assignment of 30 days or more is creditable to an employee's official personnel file.

·Attendance at job-related professional meetings is creditable for developmental and training purposes.

·It is acceptable to allow an employee to audit up to 20% of a course; however, it is not acceptable to allow an employee to audit an entire course because of violation of merit selection considerations.

·An employee who wishes to audit any portion of a course must have permission from the Course Coordinator. When using NPS sites for courses in-the-field, the site manager must be informed in writing, in advance, of auditing and attendance policies.

·Employees who audit training events do NOT receive credit for attendance.

·All training materials used for certification will be closely monitored (films, books, lesson plans, videotapes, etc.) for current mission applicability, updating, and replacement.

·An automated SF-182 process will be used for recording all training and costs regardless of training source.

·Employees who have legitimate reasons for not attending and/or completing a training course may be excused from fiscal liability. Such reasons should be compelling (e.g., illness of the employee during the training, death/serious illness in the employee's family). This decision will be made in conjunction with the employee's supervisor/manager.

·Employees who do not complete training or who do not perform satisfactorily during training will be assessed for all costs associated with that training.

·If a trainee does not meet minimum performance standards for attendance at a course, the Course Coordinator has discretionary authority to dismiss the employee from the course (after working with the trainee to improve performance). The Course Coordinator will notify the employee's supervisor prior to making that decision. The Course Coordinator or the supervisor will update the employee's training records by indicating a "not certified" notation in the certification block for that course. This information will be tracked and will be a useful screening tool when providing an employee with future training opportunities.

·Once funding is available, a central training fund will be utilized to pay for essential competencies training.

·A fee may be charged for any NPS-sponsored training development opportunity, as deemed appropriate to cover course materials, administrative, and related costs.

·Employees are encouraged to identify alternative funding for developmental opportunities, but must comply with legal and ethical requirements.

·Overtime will be governed by the most current FLSA/5 CFR regulations.

·Any eligible overtime claims due to training and development programs will be paid by the employee's duty station, not the training and development program.

·Training should be scheduled to avoid any conflict of payment of premium wages.

·Training locations will be selected on the basis of cost and accessibility for a majority of class participants. A good faith effort MUST be made to accommodate applicants with special needs.

·Training locations may also be selected based on relationship of the topic to location, public appearance, non-use of high cost geographic rate areas, and existence of unique value or resources.

·NPS will market and sell products generated by Training and Development programs.

·All revenue generated by sales will be returned to employees in the form of additional training and developmental programs.

·Policy and implementation are being developed at this time.

·The NPS will enter into joint development efforts whenever appropriate.

·The Leader, Training and Development Team, will ensure that all training facilities and lodging conform to accessibility requirements.

·Course Coordinators will ensure that special needs are accommodated and that barrier's which restrict an employee's ability to learn are mitigated.