IT training companies are having a tough time, and ambitious ITers
could turn the situation to their advantage, writes Roisin
Woolnough
Training is one of the first areas to be hit when the economy takes
a dive, a fact that is being felt in IT training companies at the
moment. "I have been in training for over 20 years and I have never
seen a worse time for it," says Colin Steed, chief executive at the
Institute of IT Training. "Training companies are really struggling
and have been since this time last year. Even the big companies
that normally do very well are doing very badly and suffering
massive losses."
When Pardo Fox, a consultancy that provides market intelligence to
the IT training industry, asked 100 IT training organisations what
their greatest challenge was in the second half of last year, more
than 25% said "survival". Other responses included "staying in
business" and "dealing with the speed of the slowdown when all our
planning was based on 30% growth".
A lot of organisations have not been able to get the volume of
students they need and have folded or been swallowed up by larger
companies. Some are still suffering from the collapse of the
Government's Individual Learning Account scheme - and they are the
lucky ones that survived.
Aine McGuire, business director at Pygmalion, a Microsoft-certified
training partner, estimates that training activity is down by
between 20% and 30%. "The training market has been very difficult
for everyone as companies are culling people and cutting down on
training," she says.
In recent years UK companies had been spending an average of £361
per person on training, according to figures from the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development. Not so anymore, says Graham
Scrivener, sales director at Intuition Computer Training. "One
corporate client told me their training budget has been cut to £89
per person per year. They are only doing the really critical
requirements," he says.
This is mixed news for IT professionals, for whom training is a top
priority. Steed thinks the current climate can actually be a very
good time to invest in training because many organisations are so
desperate to sell courses that they are reducing their
prices.
"It is definitely a buyer's market, and you can get some very good
deals from training organisations at the moment," he says. "I heard
that QA, for example, is slashing the prices of some of its
Microsoft-certified courses - and I mean slashing the prices. But
now is the time to go for it - don't wait for things to pick up
because prices will go up again."
Both companies and individuals have the chance to buy training at
discounted rates, but many employers are not seizing the
opportunity. Anyone who feels they need some extra training will
have to make a very good business case to their bosses if they are
to be persuaded to part with any cash. You will have to show that
the training is essential to the success of a project, your
performance at work and how you contribute to the overall business.
"Companies are only sending people on training courses when they
will definitely be using the skills," says Wendy Devolder, sales
manager of the training division at IT services company Valtech.
"Whereas before people were being sent on courses as a retention
tool, now training is much more business-driven."
Steed says a significant number of companies are looking at taking
training back in-house or forming partnerships with training
organisations to provide tailor-made courses. "Companies are
looking at doing training on site, instead of sending people away
on scheduled courses," he says.
This in itself saves money because firms do not have to fork out
for accommodation, travel expenses and the other costs incurred
when employees go on residential courses. The real saving for
employers, however, is reducing the time employees spend away from
their desks and away from their work. The average length of a
course has got shorter and intensive one or three-day programmes
are being favoured over two-week courses.
Companies are also opting for e-learning as a way to keep costs
down and keep employees working while they learn. ITers are finding
that employers want them to slot bite-sized chunks of e-learning
into their working day to minimise the impact on profits.
Paul Butler, chief executive at e-learning company KnowledgePool,
thinks the shift towards e-learning will continue.
"I think we will see a continuing and steady growth in successful
e-learning companies," he says. Despite this prediction, many
smaller e-learning companies have suffered badly in the past few
months and some have gone bust.
The overall trend is towards "blended learning" - a mix of
traditional classroom-based training and e-learning. Steed says the
most popular training programme offered by the Institute of IT
Training at the moment is it certified e-learning professional
course. "It is about learning how to tutor people online," he
explains. "We had 13,000 applications in the first month. A lot of
major corporations are interested."
It is the high-level courses that are proving more resistant to the
downturn. Employers are concentrating on business-critical
applications and, because many of them are no longer employing
contractors, they are having to generate those skills in-house.
Butler thinks this could explain why project management courses are
faring better than other courses. "Organisations have moved away
from hiring high-flyers to work on projects and many of them are
putting their own individuals through management training. One of
our most successful courses at the moment is called 'first-time
manager'," he says.
This change in the way companies are operating could provide an
ideal opportunity for aspiring IT managers to move into more
strategic roles, such as project management. If there is no one in
your department with the required skill set and there is a
recruitment and contractor freeze on, you may never get a better
chance to get some new skills and manoeuvre yourself up the career
ladder.
Predictions are that the IT industry will start to pick up at the
beginning of next year, and the training industry will follow soon
afterwards, so now is the time to make your move.
The most popular IT training courses
- Project management
- Web development skills, such as Java and C++
- Windows NT
- Dreamweaver.
Source: Colin Steed, Institute of IT Training