Training Program Consulting Services

A program can be compliant and still be out of step with the job

Software records that your people are qualified. It doesn’t decide what qualified means. That comes from a task analysis, the objectives derived from it, materials that teach to those objectives, and evidence an evaluator will accept.

Confidence and rigor aren’t the same thing. Plenty of programs are run by people certain they’re compliant, sitting on an analysis nobody has revisited in years. The paperwork holds up right until somebody tests the reasoning underneath it.

That gap is what we’re hired to close, and it’s why we start with your program, not our catalog.

FOCUS Learning training and performance consulting

What we do, organized by the problem you have

Six ways clients engage us. Most clients combine several of them and keep the engagement running, because a program needs maintaining rather than building once.

Build the program from scratch

No program yet, or one that won’t survive an evaluation. We start with the analysis and work forward.

Job task analysis
Training program design and training maps
Enabling objectives by role
Assessments and test item development

Build the materials

The program is defined but nothing exists to teach from. This is the largest share of our project work.

OJT guides and task qualification sheets
Self-study guides, SCORM wrapped
Computer-based training
Job aids, procedures, and test banks
Technical writing

Stay compliant

Ongoing support from a technical account manager who knows your program and your evaluator's expectations.

Quarterly training program reviews
Annual task list review
Annual program evaluation review
Mock evaluation and coaching prep
Continuing training design

Run the administration

You have the program. You don’t have anyone with time to keep the records defensible.

Schedules, class notifications, and grades
Task qualification and evaluation data entry
E-filing of rosters and certificates
Records upload to NERC SOCCED
Individual training plans and new-hire onboarding documentation

Get onto the platform

Moving years of program history into VISION or Qlarity without losing the qualification record.

Implementation and configuration
Legacy data migration
Workflow optimization
Custom report development
Familiarization training for your team

Buy instead of build

Our content library holds work already done for programs like yours. Draw from it instead of commissioning it.

Starter task lists by operator role
Starter enabling objective sets
Initial program maps
Self-study modules and OJT how-to guides
Human performance microlearning and test banks

Get the consulting capabilities flyer Get the managed training services flyer

How an engagement runs

Four phases, mapped to the ADDIE model our platforms are built on. The letters spell PATH.

Training delivery to a room of attendees — Delivery is the visible part. The analysis behind it is the part that has to hold up.

Plan

Analysis

Establish what the job requires. Task analysis, current-state review, and the gap between the two.

Align

Design

Turn findings into a program structure: objectives, training maps, sequencing, and the metrics success will be measured against.

Train

Development and implementation

Build the materials and put them in front of people. Drafts go out in batches for your review before anything is final.

Harness

Evaluation and continuous improvement

Measure against the metrics set in Align, close findings, and set the annual review rhythm that keeps the program current.

Who does what

What FOCUS does

Assigns a named project delivery lead
Builds the project schedule and holds it
Runs the analysis and interviews your experts
Drafts deliverables and revises through comment rounds
Delivers dated final documents

What you provide

Subject matter experts for interviews and validation
Access to existing program documentation
A named point of contact on your side
A review window on each draft batch

What you receive

A signed scope before work starts
A project schedule with named milestones
Final deliverables, dated and version controlled
Documentation an evaluator will accept as evidence

How you buy it

Both are recurring and both include the platform. The difference is only whether the services sit inside your subscription tier or alongside it as their own annual agreement.

Bundled with VISION or Qlarity

A defined block of services is priced into your subscription tier. No separate purchase order, no scoping cycle, and a named technical account manager already inside your review calendar.

This is the route we point most people at, because the services and the software are the same method. We designed these platforms around the systematic approach to training, so the analysis we run and the records an evaluator asks for end up in the same system rather than in a folder somebody has to maintain by hand.

Before you plan the year:

Included services and content credits are annual and don’t roll over
Everything is scheduled in advance
Delivery is remote unless you arrange otherwise
There’s no cap on how many items you request at once

Ask what your tier includes

As a recurring services agreement

An annual agreement with a defined scope, named deliverables and a review calendar, renewing each year. Some clients start with a single analysis and move onto this footing once the program exists, because a program is never finished.

Common shapes:

Ongoing program maintenance on an annual renewal
Administration run as a managed service
A multi-year materials development program
A single analysis, as the entry point into the above

One thing to be clear about: the deliverables are yours in editable source formats, but a documented program has to live in a system or it decays. That is why services and platform are scoped together.

Scope an annual agreement

How we work

Worth knowing before the first call:

We extend your team’s judgment rather than its headcount. You are buying method and capability transfer, so your people are more capable at the end than at the start.
Your experts own the content. We own the method that gets it out of their heads and into a record an evaluator will accept, and we leave that method behind with them.
We protect the rigor over the date. If the scope will not fit the budget we will tell you which parts to cut rather than thin all of it, because a program that is thin everywhere fails everywhere.
Programs need maintaining, not just building. Most engagements continue as an ongoing program relationship with scheduled reviews and a named technical account manager, which is where the compounding value is.

Consultants, not a body shop

We built VISION and Qlarity around the systematic approach to training, so the people delivering these engagements work from the same method the platforms enforce. Not a generic consulting playbook with your industry's words swapped in.

Our consultants are practitioners. They have built programs, sat through evaluations, and had to defend a task list to somebody who didn’t want to accept it. That’s a different conversation from a vendor scoping hours against a specification.

It matters because most training teams are small. Two or three people carrying an entire qualification program, with the operating schedule always winning the argument over training time. We’re built to extend that team's judgment, not just its capacity.

So the most useful thing we do is often not the deliverable. It’s the conversation before it: what problem are you solving, what will an evaluator accept as evidence, and what will your instructors still be doing after we leave.

How the SAT method works

On the bench

Master's degrees in industrial and organizational psychology
A doctorate in educational leadership
A NERC-certified transmission operator
US Navy Nuclear Power Program alumni
Instructional designers who have sat through the evaluations they prepare clients for

Frameworks we build to

NERC PER-005
INPO
NRC
IAEA
WANO

Then we show you whether it worked

Most training vendors stop at delivery. The deliverable ships, the invoice clears, and nobody establishes whether anything changed on the plant floor.

We agree the measure first

In the design phase, before anything is built, we pick the operating metrics the program should move: error rates, maintenance cycle time, material consumption, human performance data.

We measure against it

After delivery we map training outcomes back to those same metrics and run the return calculation against them, using your data.

You get the honest number

A business impact report that states its confidence range instead of a single flattering figure. If the effect is small, the report says so.

Organizations that trust FOCUS Learning

Organizations across the FOCUS Learning platform and services practice. Logos shown are already published on focuslearning.com.

Case studies

One engagement, with the outcome the client got. More will appear here as clients approve them.

Three engineers reviewing a tablet during a pipeline walkdown — Analysis with the people who actually do the work.

Oil and gas refining

Ergon: Workforce continuity at Ergon's rural refinery

The challenge

Inconsistent training, high turnover, and retiring experts left the site struggling to maintain a skilled workforce at its rural West Virginia refinery.

What we did

Developed structured training for high-turnover roles
Implemented a centralized system to track progress and standardize processes

Results

Improved safety and reduced operational risk
Strong audit performance with documented training procedures
Scalable onboarding that supports workforce continuity

Read the full story

How we partner with you

For every gap you can see, a way to close it, starting with your problem rather than our catalog.

Find the gap

Understand the need

What the program is supposed to deliver, and where it currently does not.

Assess the training program and its challenges
Identify the performance and knowledge gaps
Set priorities against what moves the needle
Establish a roadmap you can actually follow

Design the solution

Create the plan

A structure that fits the work and survives contact with the operating schedule.

Build a role-based framework aligned to the business
Organize learning so it is simple, consistent and scalable
Align every objective to a job task and a required outcome

Build the capability

Develop the solution

The materials, the assessments and the qualification paths that make it real.

Develop clear, effective training content
Build OJT guides, tools and qualification paths
Create exams and checks that validate learning
Consolidate existing content into one system

Sustain the performance

Deliver lasting results

The part most vendors skip, and the reason programs decay after go-live.

Launch programs for new facilities and initiatives
Support onboarding and workforce readiness
Monitor performance and improve continuously
Ongoing advice and guidance from a named contact

The services exist to make the software work

FOCUS is a software company. These engagements are what turn VISION or Qlarity into a program that holds up, which is why they are scoped together and renewed annually.

In our clients’ own words

I have had the opportunity to partner with FOCUS Learning for over four years, and it has been an exceptionally positive experience. They consistently deliver high-quality work that adds meaningful value to our training programs and overall learning strategy.
What truly differentiates FOCUS Learning, however, is their people. Every individual I have worked with has been highly responsive, professional, flexible, and genuinely committed to our success.
While the quality of their work is outstanding, it is the strength of the relationships they build that stands out most.

Scott HamiltonAES Indiana SEC

Since 2022 we have partnered with the Professional Services and Consulting team on our initial training for transmission operators. By combining our internal team with FOCUS’ subject matter experts, we developed two complete, high-quality curricula in just our first year.
We continue to choose them because they truly listen and understand our unique needs. They consistently bring deep expertise, exceptional consultants, and total accountability to every project.

Senior Technical Training Program ManagerA transmission operations professional at an electric utility

Frequently asked questions

Six questions buyers ask before they scope an engagement.

Do I have to use VISION or Qlarity to hire your services team?

No. Roughly half our work each year is bought on its own statement of work. That said, our method is built into VISION and Qlarity, so most clients who start with a project end up on a platform. A program you can’t maintain is a program that decays.

What is a job task analysis and why does everything start with one?

A job task analysis establishes what a role does, task by task, validated by the people who do it. Every downstream decision depends on it: what to train, who must be qualified, and what evidence proves it. Build a program without one and you can’t defend why it contains what it contains.

Can you take over administration of a program you didn’t build?

Yes. Training administration is one of our most-renewed services and it’s frequently the first thing a client hands over. We start by auditing the current record state so both sides know what we’re inheriting.

What happens in the first conversation?

We ask what regulator you answer to, when your next evaluation is, and what already exists. That’s usually enough to tell you whether you need an analysis, a build, or just someone to keep the records straight. If the answer is that you don’t need us yet, we will say so.

What is the difference between an LMS and a training management system?

A learning management system delivers and records course content. A training management system manages the qualification program around it: the task list, the objectives derived from that list, who is qualified to perform which tasks, and the evidence that proves it. In regulated work the second question is the one an evaluator asks.

What is the difference between SAT and ADDIE?

ADDIE is the five-phase design process: analyze, design, develop, implement, evaluate. The systematic approach to training is the regulated application of it, which adds the requirement that everything trace back to validated job tasks and that the whole chain be documented well enough to defend. ADDIE is the method. SAT is the method plus the evidence burden.

How do you prove qualification rather than course completion?

Completion says somebody attended. Qualification says somebody has demonstrated they can perform a specific task to a standard, assessed by a named evaluator, on a date, against an objective that traces to a validated task list. Proving it means keeping that chain intact and retrievable. That’s what our analysis and documentation work is for.

When you need the program built, not just the software

What the services team is carrying this year