During a recent newscast on Channel News Asia regarding skills development, one statement stands out by those interviewed. “Skills development and training is fundamental to the company and personal development. Don’t become a victim of the downturn.”

With many companies, facing tight budgets and possible slowdown, one of the first actions executed by many companies and department is to slash training budget as they are part of operating expenses and possibly provide some relief. Two things happen when budgets are cut. One is companies’ starts looking at “cheap and good” for their employees and second, training may be stopped altogether.

For the first part, for those who drive a hard bargain, there is nothing such as “cheap and good”. Past Singapore experiences in construction issues with providing contracts only to the lowest which left many jobs half done and the current contamination crisis shows that with cheap – many corners are cut and you don’t really get what you think you got. In the area of information technology, one of the key areas of learning is lab exercises as well as accredited and authorized courses and instructors. 

For many companies, most calculate the cost of the courses by the course fee only. However, the real cost consist of more than just the course fee, they include

• Wages to the employee while he is taking the course
• Opportunity cost for lost productivity while the employee is away
• HR - Morale of the employee as the type of training provided for your employees shows how the company values them.
• Productivity loss after the employee returns and did not perform adequately due to poor training session.

The above 4 points would easily cost more than 100% of the course fee, yet it is often neglected.

To provide an environment that IT personnel learn best in infrastructure training, it should include

• 24hrs lab exercises during the course duration
• Up to date and authorized courses kits and not books that are printed 1-2 years ago.
• Certified instructors from vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and/or Juniper
• Actual equipment at work and not just a simulated environment, where real test can be carried out.
• Good learning environment for trainees and experience sharing with other corporate IT staff
• Post training program
• Focus trainers who can provide expert opinion and advice. It is important that companies choose an expert training company in a focus area with diversified skills so that one can learn more from them.

For the second option of slashing budget, many don’t realize that with this slash, it basically stops feeding the “golden goose” with food that keeps the company from growing beyond the crisis. With this freeze, one may just starve the “golden goose” to death through mal-nutrient. One becomes a victim of the downturn.

Written by

Nicholas Yong

Manager – Training Partners