First-year Administrative In-service Training Needs as Perceived by County Extension Directors in Oklahoma

Abstract

One of the major responsibilities of a County Extension Director in the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service is the accomplishment of numerous administrative tasks. However, the individual designated as county director normally has little, if any experience in administrative matters. In addition, very few in-service training opportunities are provided for those who are newly appointed to the position. The purpose of this study was to identify priority in-service training needs of first-year county Extension directors as perceived by the 75 county directors in Oklahoma at the time of this study. A questionnaire with 40 in-service training topics was mailed to the 75 county directors, all of which were completed and returned. The researcher found that study respondents perceived a critical need for in-service training in administrative topics, especially in the categories of budget procurement and extension accounting policies and procedures. All of the 40 administrative training topics were perceived to be in the area of high or critical priority as related to need for training.