This program provides guidelines and forms for the establishment of a comprehensive Coaching, or as sometimes referred to- Field Training Officer, program. The program provides an opportunity for the agency to create a process whereby new officers receive both personalized and competency-based skills development assistance from an experienced staff member. The Coaching Program allows for on-going dialogue between the officer and the Coach, and takes training from classroom theory to a real world setting. The Coaching program also provides added legal and liability protection for the employee and the agency by ensuring that training is consistent, clear and measurable.

The new officer's first few days in the Coaching Program are the most critical from the standpoint of learning and development. It is during this period that important attitudes and behavior patterns are established. During the first days of field training, the new officer forms permanent attitudes toward the agency. This is also the time when the new officer learns what is expected during their career.

Graduates of the Coaching Program will have been trained to provide each new employee with practical instruction and constructive observation. The written documentation and standardized evaluations provided by the Coaching Program will aid the agency in assigning a new officer any unsupervised job responsibilities. This specialized program will integrate theory and practice in such a way that employees will gain the confidence and the skills necessary to become highly effective and qualified officers, and will provide them the skills to perform their varied job tasks in a safe and professional manner.

During the program, Coaches are taught how to use the Field Tracking Sheet which lists various job duties and sub-skills, with date columns to record the date the particular job task was covered. As the various job tasks may be address more than once, three columns are provided to record up to three occasions the skills were addressed. Participants are also provided a Coach's Weekly Observation Report, followed by the Standardized Evaluation Guidelines, which provides an evaluation of the officers performance in the listed job skill areas. While the Field Tracking Sheet documents when the job tasks were covered, the Weekly Observation Report provides feedback as to the Coach's evaluation of the trainee's performance.

Through this program the agency formalizes a program to take the new officer from the classroom theory to real world skill performance and evaluation. The tools provided in the program create documentation that the skills were not only taught, but also performed to an established standard by the new officer.

Length of program: 1-day