At Exprodat we often have to communicate the value of training, especially when times are hard (hello credit crunch). A while ago I came across an interesting blog post on the ESRI Training Matters website which summed this up nicely. It being some months since it was posted, and ESRI being enthusiastic bloggers, it has now long disappeared from the first few pages of blog posts, so I thought it might be useful to re-post some of it here.
I think the most interesting thing is the way it highlights 4 key benefits of keeping your training investment going, and these are posted here pretty much verbatim…
Increase Staff Efficiency
Training increases staff efficiency—it’s not uncommon to hear students who have learned a single software task in an instructor-led class excitedly claim they will now save hours on the job.
Increase Staff Productivity
Training increases staff productivity—a natural result of increased efficiency, productivity increases when tasks are completed more quickly. More tasks can be completed in less time.
Increase Staff Knowledge
Training increases staff knowledge—this may seem obvious, but knowledge is more than the sum of the topics covered in a class. Knowledge is the synthesis of different concepts and skills learned over time, which enables a person to recognize and act to prevent errors and reduce liabilities.
Find New Opportunities
Training leads to new business opportunities—again, a natural extension of the previous benefit. When staff are well trained, they are freed to be creative and see possibilities for information products and workflows that may not have been apparent before the training. Interacting with peers in class by exchanging ideas and experiences certainly helps realize this benefit.
If you’re interested in reading the full article, it was posted by Suzanne Boden, on Dec 2nd 2008, on ESRI Training Matters.
Posted by Chris Jepps, Technical Director, Exprodat.