Just in Time vs Just in Case Training

Around Australia many organisations have already commenced, or are doing final preparations for the high operational period. Each organisation will have its own requirements about the minimum training and refreshers personnel must complete to be ready for the worst. Most of this will focus on life saving drills and scenarios.

These drills are great examples of running training “just in time” (JIT) so it is fresh in everyone’s minds – ready to be used immediately. Because there is a clear need to complete this training, this can also be beneficial motivationally. Focusing on just these skills is also time and cost effective.

There are other strategies we can use to help create JIT situations for everyone:

• Quick access FAQs
• QR codes to further information and links to documents/further guides
• Searchable knowledge bases
• Job aids/templates
• Infographics and other reminders

By comparison, Just in Case (JIC) training helps manage risks – because we don’t know what might happen. This training is wider in scope, usually covering many different topics, with the intention at some point in the future you will likely need to be able to do it to fill a role or complete a task. Having completed this training we hope that information and skills are ready for us to recall and use, with no lead time required to learn new things. The challenge is when we don’t need to use it soon after, it starts to be forgotten. It can also create information overload, so we don’t remember everything we covered in the first place!

It’s safe to say that a combination of both these approaches will continue in our public safety industry, however emerging technology and systems may better support us to utilise more JIT approaches.

Our EMready modules are another example of trying to balance JIT with the JIC content, with each video and eLearning module being short and focused on what people need to know and do to confidently fill a role. (You can check these out at www.emready.com.au)