by Diane Cabrales, MOSAICA

This article, which originally appeared in the September, 1996 edition of The Resource Connection, explains the importance of pre-service training.

The success of your AmeriCorps program depends on the success of your members, as a team and as individuals. How can you ensure their success? Careful recruitment is important, but you must make sure that, once selected, they have the knowledge and skills they need for their service assignments. How can you prepare them for their service year? Providing effective pre-service training helps members arrive at their service sites prepared to carry out their assignments.

What is pre-service training? Pre-service training (PST) is a series of information, skill-building, and team-building sessions that go well beyond simple orientation. It occurs before members begin -- or at the beginning of -- their service. Pre-service training should be followed by in-service training, periodic training or member development provided during the service year.

Pre-service training helps ensure program quality. Good training will pay off in program outcomes, with members who know the purpose of their service, are prepared to work as team members, and have the skills to accomplish program objectives. Investing in training up front leads to savings later, through higher retention rates and happier, more effective members. Pre-service training has many uses and values:

• Pre-service training prepares members for their year of service. PST can help them acquire the skills and knowledge they need to "get the job done."
• The process of building a strong sense of team or esprit de corps begins with pre-service training. This is a chance for your members to get to know each other, and for members, program staff, and site supervisors to form positive working relationships. It is also a chance to establish reasonable, shared expectations -- on the part of members, staff, and site supervisors.
• Pre-service training should begin to cultivate the "big picture" of national service -- what it means to be part of a movement that is both national and local and how direct service connects to larger issues. It introduces members to the ethic of service, which may continue throughout their lives.
• Pre-service training begins the process of understanding service-learning. Members learn about service-learning principles, values, and practices. PST provides members with preparation and planning time for the year of community service that they are about to experience. It also offers an opportunity for structured pre-service reflection.
• Pre-service training lets you get a sense of your members' strengths, weaknesses, and ongoing supervisory and training needs. This enables you to plan ways to meet these needs before problems arise.
• Pre-service training is the first opportunity for members to see your organization in action. It offers a chance to teach them about your organization.
• The planning and preparation for PST provide an opportunity for collaboration with the other organizations involved in your program. You may train with others. For example, national direct grantees may bring together their chapters or affiliates, and statewide or regional entities may include host sites or partner organizations as participants or as trainers.