Tony Collins and Mike Simons
tony.collins@rbi.co.uk
CSA staff were not happy with the training they received. Despite
the delay in implementing the agency's new system CS2, "a number of
staff were not trained before having to work on the new system, and
others were not trained in the full range of tasks they were
expected to undertake.
"We were told that one team of 16, working entirely on CS2,
initially had only one trained member. Some members of this team
were not trained for a year after implementation."
Some of those who had been trained told the researchers they were
taught things they would never use, and others were left with large
knowledge gaps.
"Staff felt the trainers were only just becoming accustomed to the
new computer system themselves and were told by some that the
trainers had received only the training they were
delivering."
One focus group member said, "The training - and this is not to
pick on the trainers - was abysmal, absolutely dreadful."
Managers joined frontline staff in expressing frustration. Several
managers said the training did not prepare staff for their jobs.
Managers confirmed reports from frontline staff that training took
place on "clean" cases, which "did not prepare staff for any real
difficulties they may encounter (and soon did)".
One manager told the researchers this that this was "probably a
good thing, since staff may have been less keen to get started on
real cases if they had been alerted to the problems during
training".