Can education and training decision making be improved using a risk-management decision-making framework?

Current research and literature reviews indicate that Australian organisations do not use consistent and effective decision making processes when undertaking education and training. This paper provides both context and background to underlying training decision making problems in Australia and introduces an innovative training decision making model for research and testing. The model to be tested develops a heuristic training decision making sequence based on risk management theory and is supported by the International Risk Management Standard ISO 3100:2009. The application of risk management logic to training decisions enables the development and testing of a unique decision making sequence that ranks and prioritises organisational training approaches in accordance with perceived levels of organisation risk. A defined series of training matrixes embody the heuristic training model and facilitate a meta- analysis approach to organisational training needs. The effectiveness of the heuristic risk management decision making model will be tested by using a two phase research approach. Phase one measures training managers’ decision making confidence levels when they are asked to apply the risk management matrixes to their organisational training decision making. Phase two examines the correlation between variations in training managers’ confidence levels and the perceived effectiveness of the risk management decision making model