An open letter to all IT Managers/CIOs: Invest in training, please

re: An open letter to all IT Managers/CIOs: Invest in training, please

Scott Whigham — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:39:59 GMT

I've been in the training industry for over a decade now and my take on it is that it's the economy more than it is CTOs and managers not wanting to train. They want to train people but when they have 15% budget slashes for four years in a row, what can they do? It's the old issue: when you have to cut your budget by 15%, do you do so by cutting people or cutting extra costs (or both)?

I've also thought that training was a leading indicator of trouble in the IT sector (companies slash "luxuries" like training budgets long before they fire people) but it is a training indicator of a rebound. Example - once you have a bigger budget, you generally (1) hire more people, (2) upgrade hardware that you have been limping along on, (3) upgrade the software that you've been forced to use because you couldn't afford the latest and greatest, and then (4) now it's time to train people.

I could be wrong though but that's sort of how I think about it.

re: An open letter to all IT Managers/CIOs: Invest in training, please

jchang — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:36:19 GMT

A long while, 1995?, Windows NT was just beginning to take off and there were still few MCSEs. A couple of recent college grads did the MSCE, with the official training classes for a couple of the tests paid be by the company, and the rest on their own. They were immediately recruited by other firms with huge raises, which the company elected not to match. Thereafter, company budget for training was not forthcoming. Today, I am inclined to think that the MCxxx cert warrants some pay raise, but I think people need to be careful on how this is handled.

Other than that, employee career development is good. But if it is clear that heavy lifting is urgently required, go for the really exhorbitantly expensive consultant. After, just how valuable is the advice of a cheap consultant? No pain, no gain! My completely unbiased opinion.

re: An open letter to all IT Managers/CIOs: Invest in training, please

Iain — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:26:00 GMT

My experience in the UK, was that employers don't want to pay for training, in some cases, because they feel the staff will then leave for a higher paying job and therefore they (the employer) do not benefit from the training they paid for.