Feature—Financial Management and Business Training
The Finance and Business Domain continued to progress with a program of skills development and the delivery of an expanded schedule of financial management and systems training. In total, training was delivered to 14,610 participants.
Financial systems training continued to be a focus in 2005–06 with higher throughput numbers reflecting the redevelopment and implementation of modularised ROMAN training. Financial management related training increased considerably from the previous year. In addition to an increase in staff participation on existing courses, new induction and intermediate training courses were introduced and delivered across the regions. This training effort provides more Defence staff with a better understanding of the underlying principles of sound financial and accounting practices and with a clearer articulation of financial career development pathways. This trend will continue with the development of specific process and procedurally-based training to meet skills gaps identified through the Financial Controls Framework project and the ongoing development and use of eLearning.
Senior Officer Training—A significant development within the reporting period was the ongoing development and delivery of financial management training for the Senior Leadership Group and senior officers at the Executive Level 1/ Lieutenant Colonel (equivalent) level and above. The scope of the training was expanded to include four courses for senior officers. The courses have been designed to be adaptable for individual Group needs, with delivery extended to regional areas.
Finance and Business Training—A variety of other finance and business-related training courses were delivered to 6,940 participants during 2005–06. Of these, 4,556 were via four eLearning courses—Manage Official Bank Accounts; Travel Budget Calculators; Card Management System; and Defence Purchasing Card. Group and function specific training was delivered to 501 participants and included specialist training in support of estate management, capability development and Defence Attaché responsibilities.
A suite of newly developed introductory financial management training courses were piloted in Canberra and delivered throughout Australia in the second half of 2005–06. Three Certificate Level IV competency based courses focusing on more specific financial management aspects were also piloted in June 2006 and will roll out to regional Australia in 2006–07.
Tertiary Training—Defence staff were able to access two tertiary training courses—the Diploma in Government (Financial Management)—with 46 participants; and the Graduate Certificate in Accounting—with 47 participants. The graduate certificate provides Defence staff with an entryway into postgraduate financial management studies.
Financial Management System Training—Defence provided training to 7,281 participants on the three corporate financial management systems—ROMAN (accounting system), BORIS (high level budgeting tool) and Force Element Product Costing (costing tool). This effort was largely directed to ROMAN with training delivered to 7,035 participants. ROMAN training is progressively being updated to ensure courses are current, meet the business needs of users and make greater use of flexible learning delivery.
Note:
- This table includes training data for the DMO.