Professional Development and Training

Professional development opportunities are offered to employees throughout the year as a means to enrich individual learning and to help create a stronger and more inclusive workplace. The College provides employees with a range of offerings that are designed to benefit employees across all areas of the College. We welcome your feedback on all aspects of our training programs.

As part of the onboarding process, new hires are expected to successfully complete designated professional development training workshops. New employees will be notified about required training programs. On an ongoing basis, employees may be invited and expected to participate in training opportunities as determined by the College.

Diversity and Inclusion Professional Development 

We offer a range of professional development opportunities designed to build trust, mutual respect, and a shared vision for Bennington College as an inclusive and antiracist community.

• Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Recruitment and Hiring Practices
• New employee training workshops (offered through Traliant) 
  • Workplace Diversity, Inclusion and Sensitivity 
  • Unconscious Bias 
  • Microaggressions in the Workplace 

Safety Training

Safety training can help to maximize the health, safety, and wellbeing of employees. Through participation in safety training programs, together we can realize a reduction in workplace injuries and change the habits and behaviors that may result in workplace accidents.

An employee’s supervisor will review the safety training offerings to determine applicable training (based on an employee’s role/responsibilities). Employees are required to attend all sessions that are deemed mandatory per VOSHA.

Select safety training programs must be completed each academic year while others are available for employees’ general interest and are considered voluntary. Required training programs are determined based on an employee’s position responsibilities. We encourage employees to explore all available training programs offered. 

• Safety Training (offered through Traliant)
  • Aerial Lift
  • Bloodborne Pathogens
  • Confined Spaces
  • Data Privacy and Information Security
  • Defensive Driving Course (DDC)
  • Fire Safety
  • Forklift Safety
  • Hand and Power Tool Safety
  • Hazardous Communications/Right to Know/Safety Data Sheets (HazCom)
  • Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HazWoper)
  • Ladder Safety
  • Lifting for Material Handlers/Back Injury Prevention
  • Lockout Tagout
  • Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards
  • Recognizing and Preventing Phishing Attacks
  • Respirator
  • Silica
  • Slip, Trip and Fall Prevention

Sustainability Training

• Sustainability at Bennington
  • Associated slides and video (accessible through Bennington Google Drive with an active Bennington account)

Traliant Learning Management System

In an effort to effectively deliver development and training opportunities to employees, select workshops are housed within the Traliant learning management system. 

Getting Started

Once a new employee is active in ADP (the Colleges HR, Payroll system), they will automatically be enrolled in Traliant. Once enrolled, employees will receive a welcome email from Traliant to access all available and assigned courses. Login using Single Sign-On (SSO) which will access the platform through your Bennington College credentials.

How do employees know which courses are required?

Once you log into the Traliant learning management system, you will note that select diversity and safety training programs are assigned (mandatory) while others are denoted as electives (voluntary). Specific course headers are noted below.

Employees will continue to receive system reminders as the deadline approaches and following the deadline if past due.

Helpful Notes

• Traliant courses are only accessible with a Bennington Google account. If you need assistance with accessing your Bennington account, please contact Helpdesk directly. Please be sure any personal Google accounts are logged out first otherwise an Error message will occur.
• A headset or speakers are required in order to hear the audio portion of the training.
• You may start, stop, and resume a training course at any point during the training.  
• After your session (course completion or stopping to resume at a later time), please exit the course and log out of the system. Log out by selecting  the drop down menu beneath your name in the upper right hand corner of your screen and select “log out".

More Information

For further information on professional development training and safety, including sexual harassment and misconduct, contact Human Resources.