Hello.

I am a computer programmer with very little background in statistics and I wish to present data but am unsure how to present this data.

The system that I am writing stores information on members of staff. In this system an important part is to store information on training given to staff paid in part or as a whole by the company. What we want to find out is which training providers are providing the best service and which are not doing so well.

The way the system is designed is so that a member of staff logs into it and selects the provider of the course that they went on, and then the course and then the dates of the course and answers a question "How did you find this course?" which they answer either "Excellent", "Very Good", "Average", "Below Average" and "Awful". The system assigns a value to the answer so:
Excellent = 4
Very Good = 3
Average = 2
Below Average = 1
Awful = 0

Then the system uses these integers to show which providers scored high and which scored low.

An example of the current report is as such:

Provider: StoneyBridge University (an example, sorry if this place does exist)

Course: Excel Basics

Dates: 10 May 2006-12 May 2006

Excellent Very Good Average Below Avg Awful

Employee 1 1 0 0 0 0
Employee 2 0 1 0 0 0
Employee 3 0 0 0 1 0

... and so on

Question: How do I represent this data in terms of an overall rating for each provider?
Notes: Please bear in mind that we may have only been using some providers recently, whereas other providers over a longer period of time. In my calculations, those providers who have been instigated recently will have a bigger advantage over those who have been providing for us over a longer period of time.

Any ideas?

Mr Big.