The Veterans Benefit Administration supports internal training for 58 VA regional offices including training services to meet needs of outside contracts. One such client, Anteon was taught the essentials of cooperative learning techniques. VBA primarily provides internal training for American Legion, American Red Cross, Blinded Veterans of America, Fleet Reserve Association, Marine Corps League, National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers Association, The Retired Enlisted Association, Jewish War Veterans of USA, Veterans of WWI of USA, and Vietnam Veterans of America. Developing training for claim processing, compensation, pensions, education and loan guarantees, they measure improved performance with special ROI (return on investment) interest.

Dr. Beagles, Director of Technical Training and Evaluation has affiliations with the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Performance & Improvement. He discussed many aspects of developing an ID career. Three specific competencies he outlined were business practice, second, project management and finally contract development. Specialists are required to occasionally handle these areas interchangeably. VBA, Orlando office staffs 10 qualified trainers who equally administer contracts. Trainers become SME's (Subject Matter Experts) after six months of intensive training combined with their military backgrounds. They are taught to be accurate, diplomatic and tactful. A project manager may advance to program director or senior instructional designer. The later position being more technical. Managers determine how many man-hours will be required to develop an ID model, how costly all aspects are and how much ROI will the company benefit from. Finally, directors may be promoted to an executive level training position.

VBA training development relies heavily on the model of systems approach as pictured. It attempts to reduce costly error and redundancy with initial task analysis being the most important part of the process. According to the linear aspects if ID, Gustafson/Branch outlines that rectilinear models do not address specific complexities of the ID process. Though the VBA model has arrows showing consecutive departments interacting it does not have the benefits of an oval model system where problems are solved by any or all steps in the process. Information may become bottlenecked and representatives do become overwhelmed. Dr. Beagles mentioned his employee turnover rate is high.

Using real life scenarios, training begins with storyboards and is distributed through computer and classroom based instruction. Careful attention is paid to Man /Machine System Engineering and Human Systems Integration Performance Engineering. Three key elements in the design process are building better performance systems, reducing instruction and focusing on organization. Training begins with determining the veteran's requirements. For example, have they been affected by Agent Orange, battle fatigue, pneumonia or post traumatic stress disorder? Were there any pre-existing conditions? Training the examiner to evaluate a case requires asking a series of investigative questions. Adding to the complexity, the process is affected by legislation through the "Duty to Assist" law, which is subject to change each year. Most training situations involve three participants, creating the most effective group dynamics. Cooperative learning requires each member to be accountable to the other and increases long term memory retention.

Dr. Beagles offered a complete overview of the ID process. His focus on management, planning and development gave us valuable insider information. Microsoft Project is software used to track data/budgeting, available to download free from Microsoft. Upper level management in determining project cost analysis uses this application.