Training Need

A training need says that a named person needs a named course, and why. It is the queue. Nothing in the module decides who should be trained, so if a need is not raised here, the training manager is working from memory.

Where

Training Management › Training Need

Who uses it

The HR officer, from a manager's request or an appraisal outcome

When

Whenever a gap is identified, through the year

Needs first

Training Course and Training Category

What it is for

This is the first screen in the chain a client walks: need, then plan, then schedule. It is where the demand is collected before anybody commits a date or a rupee.

What it takes from the screen before it

Nothing. The need is the start of the chain. All it needs is the course catalogue to exist, so there is something to ask for.

What the next screen takes from it

Two things. Training Plan is where the training manager totals up the demand collected here into a budgeted plan for the year, which he does by reading this screen and typing the plan lines. Training Schedule takes the needs directly: its Pull Approved Needs button fills the nominee list of a session from the open needs raised for that same course.

For a line to be pulled onto a session, four things must be true of it. The need document must be released and not rejected. Its status must be Open. The line must name a course, not only a category. And the line must not already be tied to a schedule. A need raised against a category with no course in it will never appear on a session, so if the client raises needs that way, somebody has to come back and name the course before the session is run.

Nothing writes back to this screen when the session is run. When you have scheduled a need, set its Training Schedule on the line and move its status to Scheduled yourself, otherwise the same person is pulled onto the next session of the same course as well.

Every field, in plain words

Header

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Training Need	The document number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Need Date	The date the need was identified.	12 January 2026	Required.
Source	Where the need came from.	MGR Manager Request	See the list below. It is how the training manager tells a compliance need from a wish.
Requested By	Who raised it.	Fills itself with you. Change it to the manager who actually asked.
Need Status	Where the need has got to.	Fills itself as OPN Open	See the list below. You move it on yourself.
Reason	Why the training is needed, in a sentence.	Three new forklift operators joined the warehouse in December.
Remarks	Anything else worth recording.	Audit is due in March.

Source values:

• APR Appraisal Outcome. The need came out of a performance review. Use it where the appraisal said a man needs a course.
• MGR Manager Request. A line manager asked for it. The commonest source.
• SLF Self Request. The employee asked for it himself.
• IND Induction. The need exists because somebody joined.
• CMP Compliance. The need exists because a law, a customer or an audit requires it. These are the ones that cannot slip.

Need Status values:

• OPN Open. Not yet scheduled. Only needs in this status are offered to a session.
• SCH Scheduled. A session has been arranged for it. Set this yourself once you have pulled the need onto a session.
• CLS Closed. Dealt with, or no longer needed.
• CAN Cancelled. Raised in error or withdrawn.

Need lines

One line per person per course. This is the part that matters.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Employee	Who needs the training.	Asif Nawaz	Required on every line.
Functional Area	The functional area the person belongs to.	Production	Carried on the line for reporting.
Department	The department the person belongs to.	Warehouse	Carried on the line for reporting.
Position Category	The position category.	Workers	Carried on the line for reporting.
Position	The position held.	Forklift Operator	Carried on the line for reporting.
Position Grade	The grade held.	G3	Carried on the line for reporting.
Course	Which course is needed.	Forklift Operation and Safety	Name the course if you can. A line with no course cannot be pulled onto a session.
Training Category	The category needed, where the exact course is not yet known.	Safety and Occupational Health	Use it only when the client genuinely cannot name the course yet.
Priority	How urgent the need is.	HGH High	See the list below.
Due Date	The date by which the training should have happened.	15 March 2026	Needs are offered to a session in due date order, so the earliest due dates are the ones the HR officer sees first.
Training Schedule	The session this need was finally covered by.	Fill it in once the session exists	Set it yourself. It is also what stops the need being pulled onto a second session.
Line Text	A note on the line.	Joined 14 December, no forklift licence.

Priority values:

• HGH High. Compliance, safety or a dated customer requirement.
• MED Medium. Needed this year.
• LOW Low. Would be good to do.

A person cannot be asked for the same thing twice. The screen refuses a save where the same employee appears twice for the same course, or twice for the same category, whether the two lines are on this document or one of them is on a need somebody else already raised.

How to configure it

1. Make sure the courses exist on Training Course. You cannot raise a usable need for a course that is not in the catalogue.
2. Open Training Need. Need Date 12 January 2026. Source Manager Request. Requested By the warehouse manager. Reason three new forklift operators joined the warehouse in December.
3. Add one line per man: Employee Asif Nawaz, Course Forklift Operation and Safety, Priority High, Due Date 15 March 2026.
4. Repeat for Zubair Hussain and Kamran Shah on the same document. One need document can carry the whole batch.
5. Save and release the document. Until it is released it will not be offered to a session.
6. When the session has been arranged, come back, put the schedule number on each line and set Need Status to Scheduled.

Scenarios

The whole factory floor has to do fire safety before the audit in March

Raise one need document with Source Compliance and a line per man on the floor, all with Priority High and the same Due Date. It will be a long document, which is fine, it is one document rather than eighty. Then run as many sessions as you need, pulling the needs onto each session a batch at a time. The ones you have not covered yet stay open and come up again on the next session.

The appraisal said Imran needs supervisory skills

One need, Source Appraisal Outcome, one line with his name and the supervisory course, Priority Medium, Due Date the end of the half year. When the course is run, the pass is recorded against him, which closes the loop the appraisal opened. Link the Performance Improvement Plan in the Reason field so the training manager can see which plan it came from.

A man failed the course and has to do it again

Do not reopen the old need. The old need was met: he was trained and he did not pass. Raise a fresh need for the same man and the same course. Because the first need is no longer Open, the duplicate check will not stop you, and the second need is the record that he was sent twice. You can also take him straight onto a new session, since the nominee list can be filled by hand as well as from needs.

A manager asks for a course nobody has heard of

Raise the need against the category, not the course, with the request in the Reason field. Then decide. If the client is going to run it, create the course on Training Course and come back to name it on the line. If the course is never created, close the need. A need against a category will sit open for ever otherwise, because it can never be pulled onto a session.

What it is connected to

• Training Course and Training Category must exist first.
• Training Plan is built by reading the open needs collected here.
• Training Schedule fills its nominee list from the open needs for the same course.
• An appraisal outcome is a common source, so needs raised that way tie back to Performance Improvement Plan.

If something looks wrong

• "Pull Approved Needs finds nothing" - check all four conditions on the needs. The document must be released and not rejected, the status Open, the line must name the same course as the session, and the line must have no schedule on it yet.
• "It says the employee is already on a need for this course" - he is, either on this document or on an open one somebody else raised. Find that need rather than raising a second.
• "The same man keeps appearing on every new session" - his need line still has no schedule number and is still Open. Fill the line in and set the status to Scheduled.
• "A need has been open for a year" - it names a category and no course, so nothing can ever pull it. Name the course or close the need.