A T&D – or L&D Path – not only covers On-Boarding Orientation and Development needs, but On-Going Development needs as well. At least as I’ve practiced doing these kinds of projects. I’ve been doing them since 1982, published about the methods for doing them beginning in September 1984 in Training Magazine (here) – and have books out plus many articles, chapters, presentations, audio and video podcasts.

Here is an example of a Learning Path – that the client – that this is adapted from – wanted to call a Management Development Path.

Here is a typical structure where three segments of a Path become 4. I’ve had them go from 3 to 10 and everything in between. It’s a somewhat arbitrary segmentation – and I leave it to the client’s handpicked Design Team to make that call.

All T&D Paths start off in the Design Team Meeting as a 3-parter: with a Beginning – a Middle – and an End…

The Beginning – and the other two – but mostly the Beginning – itself has 3 segments/parts: a Beginning of the Beginning, a Middle of the Beginning – and yes, you guessed it, an End of the Beginning…

Those three segments for the Beginning are specified – to help sort the Analysis data – and having good/appropriate Analysis Data is absolutely critical to producing a Performance-based versus a Topic-based Training or Learning Path…

What kind of analysis data?

This next graphic shows the what data and where it goes into the PACT 5-Tier Inventory Framework. Some comes from the Organization Chart – other comes from an analysis of Performance and the enabling Knowledge/Skills…

The Beginning of the Beginning covers an orientation to the organization itself and to the teams and job of the Target Audience…

The Middle of the Beginning focuses more deeply in orientations – Advanced Organizers – about the Performance Competence Requirements of the Target Audience…

And the End of the Beginning “trains” the Learner to Perform in the processes that they are expected to perform… covering either EVERYTHING if appropriate (think: Airline Pilots) – or just the Immediate Survival Skills (think: Counter Sales Clerk who can ask others at the counter – if that is the authentic Context and they are not left on their own)…

Organizing the Content Specifications (for Content that does not exist yet) onto the Path – or organizing where Existing Content will go – “as is” or “after modification” is the job of the Design Team – in the PACT Processes – where all Analysis Data captured is “processed” into the design – and there is no Analysis Data sitting around wondering what it should influence or do – the fate of much Analysis data in other approaches.

Have you ever wondered what – if anything – would be done with much of the Instructional Analysis Data that you’ve seen in the past? I did. And I stopped that wasteful practice when I developed the PACT Processes.

For more about PACT – see these 4 new books:

For more about these books – and others – please go here.

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