Introduction
VTA contains four reports that evaluate history data so you can easily determine either:
- how much time your students are training or
- how much time you, as a training organization, are spending on the training delivery
In addition, if you are taking advantage of the VTA Credit Hours Breakdown feature, you can dig deeper at those hours.
Credit Types
Credit Types are used to report on the breakdown of hours spent training during a course. Different than the Credit Hours associated with the length of a course (on the General tab), you can identify the training time spent into Credit Types, such as Difficulty level, Classroom, Online etc.
For example, within a course that is worth 16 Credit Hours (on the General tab), 4 hours may be spent online, 12 hours spent in classroom training, the course is focused on computer skills and is valid training towards a specific type of certification.
You can use the Hours tab to maintain how the 16 Credit Hours are broken down into these Credit Types and report on them.
Here are examples of potential Credit Types that can be associated to Courses and then to your History Sessions which might give you insight in what students spend their time training on:
- Certification
- Classroom
- Coaching Skills
- Computer – Level 1 – Basic
- Computer – Level 2 – Intermediate
- Computer – Level 3 – Advanced
- Interpersonal Skills
- Language Skills
- Leadership Skills
- Math
- On the job
- Online
- Technical Skills
- Training Hours
There’s no limit to the list of Credit Types in VTA or how many Credit Types can be associated to a Course. There are, however, two system limitations:
- Credit Type values can be a maximum of 50 characters.
- The Credit Breakdown Hours value entered on the record cannot exceed the Credit Hours value associated on the General tab for the Course.
Training Hours Reports
– Hours Delivered Report
Provides a summary of course credit hours delivered from a session in your site’s History records. These hours are totaled for each course. You may also subtotal the hours by Training Area. You can group the report so that hours are totaled by employee group.
– Hours Received Report
Provides a summary of course credit hours received by employees in your site. (The Hours Delivered and Hours Received report is the same report in a single-site installation.)
Training Hours By Credit Type Reports
– Hours Delivered By Credit Type Report
Provides a summary of course Credit Type hours delivered from a session in your site’s History records, displayed first by Course, then by Credit Type. You may also subtotal the hours, first by Credit Type, then by Course. You can also run the report so that hours are totaled by Credit Type, then Course, then group.
This report can be used to show how many training hours were delivered to each Credit Type. This information is helpful for reviewing special projects and budgeting.
– Hours Received By Credit Type Report
Provides a summary of course Credit Type hours received by employees in your site, first by Course, then by Credit Type or subtotal the hours, first by Credit Type, then by Course. You can also run the report so that hours are totaled by Credit Type, then Course, then group.
Training Hours Delivered vs Received
Many people find the previous four reports confusing… “Which one do I run?”
Like most things in life – it depends. There are two questions to answer:
- What do you want to know?
- You unexpectedly had students from outside your Site attending your training sessions. Your travel and catering costs went through the roof. Are you trying to gauge how much you will be spending next year according to the events you held last year? Are you trying to justify increasing your training staff?
- Are you trying to gauge how much time your students spent training?
2. Do you work in a multi-Site VTA system?
- If yes, it matters which report you run.
- If no, the reports will provide basically the same information.
– Delivered
If you are a VTA Site that delivers training to students outside of your Site, and you want to know how many training hours you provided, or delivered, for a specific period of time, run the “Hours Delivered” reports.
For your Site’s History Class Sessions, it will review the Rosters.
– Received
If you are looking to know how many training hours the employees in your Site completed, or how much credit they received for their efforts, for a specific period of time, run the “Hours Received” reports.
For your Site’s students, it will review the Rosters they are on – across all Sites.
Final Thoughts
I often hear people trying to gauge how much online training or classroom training they do per year, but when you use a blended approach with some parts online, some classroom and some on-the-job, using Credit Breakdown Hours is a great way to flag a Course with all of them and get an easy report from VTA that breaks it down for you.
I’ve also seen people use the feature to report on continuing ed courses to two certification organizations that view training hours very differently. Whereas one organization calculates an 8 hour classroom session as 8 hours, the other used a formula that the same course was worth 3.2 hours of their certificate.
I hope this helps clear things up and possibly makes you consider using the VTA Credit Type Breakdown feature!
