Training Database need help to normalize

[robin a]

Access version: 2007
Objective: Create database to track employee training courses. This consists of [category] [skill] [level] and [Shift] for each of the 450 employees.

I have created 2 tables:
Emp_tbl (450 records) [emp_ID] [name] [shift]

Skills_tbl (2500 records) [CatID] [Category] [skill][Level}

My problem is how to store this information. If I create a table that includes emp_tbl.[emp_ID], emp_tbl.[name], emp_tbl.[shift] and Skills_tbl.[CatID], Skills_tbl.[Category], Skills_tbl.[Skill], SKills_tbl.[Level]

I will end up with 186,000 records.

I would appreciate any suggestions with organization of this data.

[Rabbit]

If your employee table is unique by employees, and your skills table is unique by skill, and you want to create a table to show which employees have what skills, then yes, that's the correct way to go about it. You will end up with your 186000 records but that's the right way.

However, a note about that third table, you don't need name in there because it's already in the employee table, you just need the employee id. The same goes for the skills table. Which means you will want to create a skill id for that table.

Of course, this is all a guess because you haven't explained what you're trying to do and how your data is related in a clear manner.

[Mihail]

Take a look to this thread:
IIF() Statement in Query based on Option Value
It seems to fit to your requirements