Curriculum
The classes and courses we offer.
College of Frontline Supervision and Management
The quality and stability of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) is more often than not related to the quality and stability of their supervisor. In many instances good DSPs are promoted to supervisory positions without receiving the focused training they need to be effective leaders and managers in their new roles.
To respond to this, we created the College of Frontline Supervision and Management (CFSM).
Its instructional capabilities and administrative functions are identical to those of the College of Direct Support. Its target audience is Frontline Supervisors, lead workers, and DSPs who want to move into supervisory roles. The courses are detailed below and new CFSM courses are in the development stage.
TRAINING AND ORIENTATION
This course gives a comprehensive overview into considerations for revising training and orientation practices. There is an emphasis on improving the retention of high potential staff through improving these areas. Information includes: how to select appropriate training topics; the best methods for helping people learn; and how and why to assess employee skills. A special lesson on orientation as a separate aspect to retention that is often confused with training is included.
- Lesson 1: Understanding Training
- Lesson 2: Choosing Training Tropics
- Lesson 3: Choosing Training Methods
- Lesson 4: Understanding Employee Assessment
- Lesson 5: Orientation Practices
FUELING HIGH PERFORMANCE
This course is an overview of interventions that help reduce turnover, but also increase employee satisfaction, productivity, and competence. Management, training, and organizational practices can have a large impact on the quality of an employee's work. This course is a review of methods and practices that ensure that high potential employees are also high performers.
- Lesson 1: Competency-Based Training
- Lesson 2: Employee Development
- Lesson 3: Teamwork
- Lesson 4: Performance Coaching
- Lesson 5: Employee Participation, Motivation, and Recognition
DEVELOPING AN INTERVENTION PLAN
This course summarized the steps of developing an effective plan for reducing turnover and vacancy. Learners will be given an overview of the planning process. Learners will be taken through the steps of gathering, organizing and summarizing their retention trends. Based on these initial numbers, learners will be taught how to obtain additional information to track down the root causes of these numbers. Finally they will be taken step by step through developing their own plan.
- Lesson 1: Understanding the Intervention Plan
- Lesson 2: Organizational Assessment-Part 1
- Lesson 3: Organizational Assessment-Part 2
- Lesson 4: Developing Your Intervention Plan
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
Selection and hiring practices can have a big impact on turnover and vacancy rates. Finding high quality Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) who want to stick around starts the minute you start looking to fill a position. This course gives a comprehensive overview into considerations for revising selection and hiring practices. Starting with recruitment and marketing strategies, the lessons help you know how to ensure potential employees are actually interested in the work, and that they have the attitudes and abilities to do the work.
- Lesson 1: Recruitment and Marketing
- Lesson 2: Realistic Job Previews
- Lesson 3: Selection and Hiring
PREPARING FOR THE SUPERVISOR'S JOB IN HUMAN SERVICES
This course is an introduction to the role of a frontline supervisor (FLS). It is for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) or others who might be considering the position. It also includes a review of the skills useful to new and longer term FLS and managers. The lessons include a description of the role of frontline supervisors. The FLS role is compared and contrasted to the role of the DSPs.
The course also includes basic information on the four foundational skills critical to supervision. It outlines both the rewards and the challenges of being a frontline supervisor and asks learners to assess their readiness for a supervisory position. This course can assist people who want to make a good decision about whether or not to pursue a supervisory position. However, it also provides valuable training so often missing for frontline supervisors.
- Lesson 1: Supervisors and Their Roles
- Lesson 2: Professional Relationship Building
- Lesson 3: Understanding Leadership
- Lesson 4: Communication in a Supervisory Role
- Lesson 5: Supervising Diverse Work Teams
YOUR FIRST FEW WEEKS & MONTHS AS A SUPERVISOR
The tool and skills you need to be an effective supervisor in the field of direct support are spelled out in this course. This course provides an overview of the entry-level skills and duties that a person will need as a new supervisor and it will be very helpful during the first few weeks and months on the job. It may also be helpful for more experienced supervisors who have not had formal training in these areas.
The course training covers a number of important areas, including the following:
- Delegation and organization
- Remote supervision
- Operational management
- Planning and running effective meetings
- Conflict management and problem solving
From this course learners will develop valuable management and supervisory skills to help them become and be effective and efficient supervisors. The skills developed from this course will help create open, organized, and efficient organizations and that will in turn lead to the creation of a more satisfied staff. Learners who take this course are encouraged to review the course,” Preparing for the Supervisor's Job in Human Services.” It will help you to build on the professional development plan that is started in that course.
- Lesson 1: Stepping Into the Supervisory Role
- Lesson 2: Supervising and Managing Daily Operations
- Lesson 3: Planning and Organizing Meetings
- Lesson 4: Time Management, Delegation, and Organizational Skills
- Lesson 5:Conflict Management, Decision-Making, and Problem-Solving
FUTURE CDS/CFSM COURSES TO BE DEVELOPED
The CDS provides a steadily growing set of courses and lessons to meet the complex demands of direct support work. As the CDS course list is expanded, courses will continue to be based on the real needs of real workers in real settings. At the same time CDS will continue to meet the needs of others for high quality information about supporting people with developmental and other disabilities (e. g., parents and other family members, service coordinators, government agency staff). Much work has already been done to identify the important topics of future courses. As in the past, updates and new development will all be guided by the needs of those who purchase and use the CDS.
