The biggest advantage will be the calendar function, which allows statewide visibility of training activities across Departments, agencies and subject matter criterion. Rather than having to search for emergency management, health preparedness and homeland security classes on multiple websites, nearly all state emergency management-related agencies will be using CO.TRAIN. Another function is the ability for students to input information on previous classes and to start to consolidate their training records in one place. Of course, all this will not happen overnight but we have begun the work. If you have questions at any time during this transition phase, contact Robyn at robyn.knappe@state.co.us.
Starting with the class Incident Command System (ICS) class in Montrose, “Situation Unit Leader” Sept. 27, 2010, DEM is starting the registration for all future classes through CO.TRAIN. We will continue to make training information, news and announcements available on COEmergency's Training Page, which includes the DEM Training News Feed.
What does this mean for me?
If you do not have a CO.TRAIN account, you will need to spend 10 minutes creating a profile and password. The nice thing is that you only create the profile once. And the password, is a self-regulating system, so if you forget your password, you can get on the site and change it without administrator assistance (most of the time, anyway).
What is CO.TRAIN system?
It is a training management system with easy to use features and efficient processes. You sign up once at the co.train.org website and you can easily register for classes. There is a super calendar and a course search function.
Where did it come from?
The TRAIN system is a free service of the Public Health Foundation, www.train.org is part of the newly expanded TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network (TRAIN). CO stands for Colorado in the CO.TRAIN acronym. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has been using the system since 2004 and has offered it to other departments as a no fee service to state agencies.
Who else is using it?
Many other states have adopted the site for registering for public health classes and some have adopted it for all-hazards emergency/disaster training management. For example: the State of Kansas (KS TRAIN)and Utah (UT TRAIN) utilize the all hazards approach and use the TRAIN system for most all emergency management, ICS and homeland security classes.
What are some enhancements in the CO.TRAIN features over the old DEM system?
For example, you can print past certificates for yourself if you lose a certificate. The biggest enhancement is the super calendar which will show all classes. There are also automated function for building class rosters and notifications. As a course administrator, all the students registered in a class can be sent an email with the click of a button. You can also make a training plan for yourself in the system. In the future, DEM will highlight some of the features in future training activity updates on COEmergency.com.
What are the challenges?
DEM will have to hand key input for past student training records. We are not certain how long this will take nor how far back our records will go. We are trying to evaluate this now so stay tuned.
Future enhancements
The Governors Office of Homeland Security (GOHS) will be making some upgrades to the system some time in 2011 to upgrade to the calendar function so that courses may be classified by region and sponsor rather than by discipline code. GOHS courses cross so many disciplines that to use those codes no longer provides us with an accurate view of courses throughout the state. GOHS is already using the web based CO.TRAIN system.
Thank you for your patience as we move to the CO.TRAIN system. For more information, please email robyn.knappe@state.co.us or call (720)852-6617. Or for more technical issues with the CO.TRAIN site, contact Greg Schlosser at cdphe.co.train@state.co.us or at (303)692-2683.
