Train to Gain

Despite the current economic uncertainly, companies should not be cutting back on their IT training budgets. That’s the view of James Smith, training manager at VAR Quiss Technology.

Indeed, Smith believes firms should be investing more. “In the current economic climate it is tempting for businesses to cut spending on training, but research shows those which do not train their workforce are almost three times more likely to fail than businesses that do,” he explains.

“As companies look to grow their way out of recession, their ability to process, manage and interpret information will ultimately define their success or failure. Organisations must ensure the IT skills of their workforce keep pace with advances in technology and software.”

Smith is an advocate of tailored training for employees. “With workforces cut to the minimum and a lack of cover affecting almost all organisations, they can ill-afford to have employees away on day-long training courses, when it could be done with the employee sat at their desk. This not only minimises the amount of working time lost, but ensures the individual is trained using their own equipment and data in a working environment with the ability to use real-time examples.

“All the learning is done in short concentrated sessions, with the individual setting the pace they learn at. We find this approach makes understanding topics easier and greatly increases the knowledge retention.”

He adds: “Offering tailored training, in bite-sized pieces, at their own desk is definitely the future.”