The General Agricultural Census of 2010 was, as the first one in Poland, carried out entirely in an electronic form.  The interviews were conducted based on three methods:CAPI, CAII, CATI.Full computerisation constituted a challenge not only to the Central Statistical Office and software suppliers, but also to the end users of the systems, the people using the technology at work (enumerators, communal leaders, dispatchers).   The conduct of agricultural census with the application of the latest technologies was a multi-layer and very complex project.One of the key elements ensuring the efficiency of the system field operations was the training of mobile application users.  The trainings were intended for two user groups.

• Communal leaders.  During the census the leaders provided technical and substantive support.Although these people did not conduct field surveys, they had to have advanced knowledge about the application, covering the maintenance and technical aspects.The number of people who received training was 2,500
• Census enumerators.Enumerators conducted the census using the CAPI method.The training group consisted of 12, 000 people.  Each group required an individual approach and customisation of both the substantive scope and training materials.  While preparing the scope and method of the knowledge transfer, an important consideration was that both the communal leaders and enumerator were, for the most part, ignorant of computer science.    Softline, in cooperation with a personal consulting agency, organised the recruitment within the whole area of Poland.Finding the large number of trainers was not an easy task; in addition to presentation skills and soft skills, the ideal candidate had to be a university graduate from IT department (or a student).  Combining the skill of knowledge transfer and extensive IT knowledge turned out to be a really challenging task. Softline, in order to standardise the presentation skills of trainers, decided to conduct, as part of its weekly internal workshops, the training on coaching skills.   The trainings on coaching skills for candidates were prepared and conducted by Cotres Robert Jasiński.The trainings on the operation of application were conducted by Softline’s internal trainers.The process of recruitment and selection of candidates and internal trainings lasted three months.  That period was preceded by the preparatory operations based on the detailed training schedule for more than 14,000 people from 2,500 communes.

CHALLENGES

The project authors were faced with the following challenges:

• short period of trainings
• number of users
• nationwide coverage

Time

Due to the fact that the date of the General Agricultural Census was specified by statute, the trainings had to end within the fixed time-limit, subject to no change.  The total amount of time needed to train approx. 14,000 people was 6 weeks (20.06-31.07.2010). The short period was also the result of the duration of the Central Statistical Office’s recruitment of enumerators.  The trainings could not commence prior to the fixed time-limit (closed recruitment) nor go beyond the set completion date.  For the purpose of consolidating the knowledge and ensuring unrestricted work on the system, the trainings were divided into 3-day training sessions. In one week, the sessions were scheduled to take place from Monday to Wednesday and from Tuesday to Saturday.  The trainings of leaders and enumerators could not take place simultaneously, as the presence of trained leaders was planned at the training of enumerators.   The trainings of leaders were planned to be conducted by two Softline trainers, while the trainings of enumerators by one trainer for the group of no more than 22 persons.  To ensure that trainings are conducted on time, Softline employed 200 persons pursuant to the contract to perform a specific task and 75 persons through the personal consulting agency to serve the needs of leader and enumerator trainings.  20% of human resources were reserve coaches, awaiting the order due to the random events to main trainers.  The number of reserve trainers turned out to be overestimated.At the turn of spring/summer 2010 Poland was affected by many tragic events (flood, Smolensk catastrophy and early presidential elections), which necessitated some changes in the training schedule.Owing to the previously taken measures to provide a lot of reserve trainers, the trainings could be finished on time.

The number of users and nationwide coverage

The number of people all over Poland who were to receive training was 2,479 of communal leaders and 11,809 of census enumerators.Organising trainings for such a large number of participants was a huge logistics undertaking and it would not be possible without the involvement of the Statistical Offices and Voivodeship Census Offices.The trainings of leaders and enumerators were carried out in 80 training centres, and the large number of rented halls resulted from the fact that the distance between the enumerator's place of residence and the centre could not exceed 60 km.For this reason, non-optimal groups were formed (much smaller than the planned groups, numbering a maximum of 22 persons), consisting of 6-11 participants.The large number of training centres also implied the need for trainers to commute to centres, and in many cases one of the requirements set for trainer candidates was to have their own car and express consent to go on frequent business trips.

Softline has conducted all scheduled trainings on time; none has been cancelled due to the absence of a trainer at the training site.  For certain, the choice of candidates was the key to this success. The instructors turned out to be very responsible and dutiful persons, and thanks to their commitment, the trainings were efficiently conducted.  For the purposes of communicating with the instructors, the on-line portal was made available with all the necessary information regarding trainings:schedules, presentation-related materials, forum, and announcements.  What is more, a phone support line was activated, running from 9.00 a.m. to 5 p.m. The trainers' work was supervised by 16 voivodeship coordinators.For the project purposes, Softline bought 170 sets of netbooks and 170 projectors.

Another training project of comparable scale, carried out by Softline, is the training of communal leaders and census enumerators as part of the National Census.Commencement date: December 2010. The project is more complex and involves a greater number of people.  We believe that the experience obtained during the work on PSR and cooperation with the trainers under PSR will allow us to conduct this training with even greater efficiency.