Attendance Sheets

these will need to be filled in for each and every training session that is run by you, or your direct reports.  Audit will want to review them at some point (they'll want the i's dotted and the t's crossed) and you'll also need to collate the information with other attendance sheets to produce monthly, quarterly and annual reports.

it's easiest to fill in and read an attendance sheet if it's split into two parts:

1. course details
2. student details

course details should be readable and include:

1. course name
2. course date/s 
3. course timings
4. trainer/s name  (+ facilitators & observers if applicable)
5. group name (if applicable)
6. location

whilst the details for each student should include:

1. number count (so you can easily count the number of students who attended)
2. name (ask students to write in capitals so certificates can be spelt correctly)
3. staff number
4. mobile phone number (for contacting the student if they are late)
5. tick boxes for each day of attendance, if the course is two days or longer.  if a student is late the number of minutes late can be written in one of the corners of the daily tick box
6. student's signature
7. space for the team leader (if there is one)

At the end of each training course:

1. enter the data from the attendance sheet into your training data base  (who attended, the month it was held in, number of days training and number of hours training)
2. scan in the attendance sheet so you have a digital copy  (label and save it somewhere that makes it easily found in six months time)
3. file the paper copy into an (organised) attendance sheet file
4. update your monthly report

Benefits:

1. no panic attacks when audit want to come and visit
2. weekly/ monthly/ quarterly/ annual reports are easily written, especially if the attendance sheets are stored in course and date order
3. extra data can be easily found when someone in the hierarchy wants additional data, at short notice, that you are not expecting to be asked about  e.g. what is the turnover rate for students who attended the course on sheep shearing, in August 1989?  and how does that compare with those attending in 2009?

image taken from here