Banks and insurance companies are spending more on
training their IT staff to meet the demands of regulatory
compliance, according to training provider Thomson
NETg.
Investment in IT training by the finance sector slumped after
2000, but showed signs of recovery in 2005 as employers began to
step up IT spending. "We are seeing increasing demand for training
for large systems - new systems that they are putting in and
systems they are already using," said Dave Parrot, marketing
director of Thomson NETg.
"We have seen systems going in to support management and
compliance risk over the past couple of years."
Financial firms are focusing more and more on the value that IT
can bring to the bottom line, and are investing in training to
support that, said Learning Tree.
"One of the main growth areas of demand is for IT Infrastructure
Library (ITIL)," said the company. "ITIL is a framework of best
practice that delivers return on investment and impacts the bottom
line. The whole IT department operates more efficiently."
Financial firms are increasingly favouring blended learning,
which combines classroom training with e-learning, for in-house
projects. Under this form of training, IT staff can prepare for
classroom courses by studying material online. Then, after an
introductory course, they can continue their studies online.
"Customised e-learning has become more affordable," said Mike
Summers, marketing director of Thomson NETg. "Previously you would
only do e-learning for a very large roll-out, but now it can be
customised much more easily for specific business.
"The financial sector is attracted to e-learning because you are
reducing staff downtime. They tend to hire a higher grade of people
who are well motivated and take well to e-learning."
The most popular courses in the financial services sector
include programming skills such as C#, Visual Basic, Linux and Sun
skills, security, VoIP and Cisco technologies.
At the same time, the financial sector is moving away from pure
technical training towards business and management training,
including project management. Training in the project management
qualification Prince II is gaining popularity.
Financial services companies are increasingly applying the ROI
evaluations to training investments, said Thompson NETg. This
includes looking at how much more efficient staff are after
training and whether projects are completed more quickly.