When the D.C. Courts system passed a mandatory annual training requirement for all new employees, the Center for Education and Training (CET) knew they needed a quick solution. Read this to learn how Certain enabled CET to implement an online system that would provide, track, and organize information for and about registrants, revolutionizing the entire system.

“Almost overnight, we became streamlined, efficient and modern.” - Meredith Hofford, Director Center for Education and Training, D.C. Court Systems

Challenge

District of Columbia Courts consists of the D.C. Superior court, a very high volume metropolitan court of general jurisdiction, as well as the D.C. Court of Appeals, D.C. Court Systems and all support divisions. The Center for Education and Training (CET) provides for the training needs of the Courts’ over 1,000 employees and over 100 judges. CET sponsors more than 100 training programs of various types and sizes throughout the year, from computer classes for twelve students to a city-wide Family Court Conference attended by hundreds. Most training is on-site and in-house, but some are off-site and involve participants from dozens of different agencies and organizations.

CET previously relied on cumbersome paper processes that involved several approvals and signatures that wound their way back and forth throughout the Courts’ inter-office mail network. Often approvals were incomplete, enrolled students were not notified of approval in time to attend classes or CET was not notified on approval status. No-shows and cancellations were high. Record-keeping was virtually nonexistent. Certificates of completion were not received for many months.

With the D.C. Courts passing a mandatory annual training requirement for all new employees and no database to track employee participation in training, the CET needed a solution to increase their efficiency.

---

Solution

Certain Meetings enabled CET to implement a single online solution for Courts employees to find information on upcoming training programs. This streamlined the enrollment, approval, confirmation and reminder process, allowing CET to greatly reduce turn-around by days and even weeks and ensure full classes.

---

Results

Using the highly flexible, customizable and secure technology of Certain Meetings, the D.C. Courts and CET gained the ability to:

• Transition CET staff to an online system quickly and easily through product training and support
• Ensure more full classes by relying on consistent data regarding percentage of no-shows and cancellations to plan accordingly
• Automatically produce class sign-in sheets for each class and student completion certificates awarded to each student at class conclusion
• Produce participant lists and name badges for conference
• Monitor conference enrollment by agency and set limits on the number of slots allocated per agency
• Allow any given employee or their supervisor to request a copy of their training record
• Allow any branch or division to request a training report for their employees
• Generate semi-annual training reports for the entire court system and for each division
• Generate excellent and accurate data on training activities for annual, quarterly and other government reports, including budget requests to Congress