A: Training is structured so that staff are not depleted: no more than 25 staff are in a classroom, and only those enrolled in a given course attend. Courses are a half-day or less, balancing staff working and staff in training. The unique needs of each county will be discussed during the Organization CWS-CARES Training Logistics Planning Meetings.

A: The number of hours needed are based on the number of classes the county identified for their staff. Training commitment can be as little as two (2) hours and as long as 42 hours.

A: Yes, please reach out to the Training Mailbox if you did not receive email or CARES 104 access.

A: At this time, members who are supposed to have access to the Training environment and participate in on-demand training are members who have been identified as trainers that will be attending the Train-the-Trainer program. If you fall within that category, but do not have access you have two options. First, you can message the Training Mailbox to ensure your access issue is triaged and resolved. Second, there are Train-the-Trainer office hours scheduled multiple times per week that you can join and get real time support to troubleshoot and resolve your access issues.

A: These lists were shared as part of the EUST 3 Report Out presentation – please reference this document for the itemization of the essential, refinement, and enhancement development tickets produced by EUST 3 feedback.

Regarding training materials, the Training Team will incorporate updates based on the functionality available at the time materials are finalized. Any changes implemented after training materials are completed will be captured in supplemental job aids, release notes, or updated training content as needed prior to Go‑Live. This ensures training remains accurate and aligned with the final solution.

A: Production Simulation is intended to supersede the Sandbox environment, which will be retired once Production Simulation is activated. It is important to note that Business Process Validation (previously called Process Simulation) is not a standalone environment. Instead, it is an activity conducted within the Production Simulation environment to validate workflows. 
 
Unlike temporary testing sites, the Training environment is a permanent resource that will remain available after CWS-CARES V1 go-live to support onboarding and continued learning using generic (non-production) data and artificial cases. 
 
Environment Summary: 

1. Sandbox: Temporary testing environment; will be replaced by Production Simulation. 

2. Production Simulation (Pending Federal Approval): Real-data practice environment that will be retired once CWS-CARES is live. 

3. Training: Ongoing staff development environment using non-production data. 

4. EUST: Extended User Scenario Testing environment, scheduled to retire after EUST 3. 

A: Following go-live, counties and organizations will maintain access to multiple environments in addition to Production. This multi-environment structure enables them to develop and test county-specific forms and reports, conduct ongoing practice sessions and staff training, and support continuous learning without disrupting live operations.

Available non-production environments include:

• Training Environment – For staff training and onboarding
• County/Organization Dev Environment – Specifically for forms and report authors to continue development work. This environment will have non-production (test/simulated) data
• Readiness Environment – For ongoing practice and readiness activities. This environment will have production data (refreshed from the Production environment at a yet TBD interval). Can also be used for testing county-developed forms and reports against production data

A: CWS-CARES training is offered through both instructor-led sessions (in-person and virtual) and self-paced online (Salesforce Enablement) courses. All Project-provided training resources will be virtual.

Knowledgeable proctors will be available. Project-provided Proctors will participate in Train-the-Trainer to prepare for supporting statewide CWS-CARES Version 1 (CARES V1) training and will be backed by a Training Support Hub staffed with Senior Trainers to address more complex questions. For more information, contact OTSI CWDS Training.

A: As we begin planning for each EUST period, we will reach out to Core Constituents to request their participation and provide a summary of the functionality included in that period. The team will engage with specific Service Area users as needed in future EUST periods to gather diverse insights and scenarios.  It will be important that the users participating have direct experience with the Service Area being tested and are familiar with executing the related functions in practice, ensuring that their time and efforts are used most effectively. 

Additionally, we are collaborating with our Systems Integration partner to provide at least 4 weeks’ advance notice on specific topics, allowing counties sufficient time to arrange for the appropriate subject matter experts to participate in each review. 

A: Yes. Preparation of the Training Environment with “real-life” scenarios plays a vital role in the CARES V1 approach to Instructor-led Training. A fluid, functional CARES V1 Training environment will be developed as part of live, lab-based, Instructor-led Training that includes: 
•    Data creation for all end-users 
•    Script development partnering with the Product as a Service System Integrator (PaaS-SI) team 
•    Data development for key functional areas 
•    Data creation for Train The Trainer (TTT) trainers 
•    Data creation for Sandbox/Readiness 
•    Data creation for trainers to practice 
•    Data refresh schedule