Analysis of Training Needs in Disaster Preparedness

Disaster management training is meant to build the competencies of disaster relief workers and volunteers in improving the preparedness and response time in all levels before and after disasters. This paper focuses on the disaster management training not only to improve the technical skills of disaster relief workers and volunteers, but also for personnel and team management. Furthermore, it is also to improve the coordination of disaster preparedness, as well as the competencies and availability of disaster management tools. Thus, in order to synchronize all various units, a training needs analysis (TNA) is required. TNA is a systematic process conducted prior to designing a training program which involves determining the training needs at organisational, operational or individual level, identifying what kind of training is needed, and finally identifying who are the individuals that need to be trained or retrained. The purpose of this research is to identify the need of individual and organisation in implementing disaster preparedness training specifically in Malaysian context, and also to provide recommendations for further improvement. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of PSYSOC 2013