Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine relative effectiveness of alternative methods of determining inservice training needs of beginning county extension agents. Nationally, Cooperative Extension Services employ approximately 2,000 new staff members each year. In Texas, about 75 new employees are brought into the extension service annually to staff new positions and to fill vacancies created through retirement and resignation. Inservice training bridges the gap between educational competencies possessed by new staff members and requirements of positions to which they are assigned. Specific objectives were as follows: 1. To test alternative methods of determining training needs: 2. To identify methods of determining training needs that may be more efficient than those previously used by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service; and 3. To develop recommendations for procedures that may be useful in determining training needs of newly employed extension personnel. All Texas county extension agents initially employed during 1966 and 1967 and still in extension in January 1969 were included in the study. Men and women were handled as distinct subgroups because of different requirements of the positions to which they are assigned and usual differences in educational background. A list of 27 major competencies all agents should possess by the end of their first year of employment was developed, drawing on preliminary work by the studies and training committee of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and assistance by a jury of experts. Specific competencies were grounded under the following six broad areas of competence: the Cooperative Extension Service, program development, the educational process, social systems, communications, and technology. These six areas of competence and the related specific competencies provided the subject and ability areas for which agents' training needs were examined. ...
Clifton, O. B. (1969). Methods of determining inservice training needs of beginning county extension agents. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -173882.