Overtly confusing yet oddly coherent
London (UK), September 2009 - (by Bob Little) Research by Learning and Skills (L&S) - the new exhibition being co-located in London's Olympia exhibition venue with the Learning Technologies conference and exhibition in January 2010 - claims that businesses in the UK are responding to the adverse economic conditions by continuing to invest in skills that will be needed in the future. Donald H Taylor, chair of the L&S Group's membership community, is quoted as saying: "Training budgets used to be cut as a way of saving costs whereas, this time, companies seem to have recognized the need to keep investing in skills."
These findings - that training budgets are not being cut in the current recession - seem to fly in the face of hard nosed experience. The answer to this apparent paradox may lie in the fact that the answers you get depend on what questions you ask and how you ask those questions.
For example, a senior training executive at the UK headquarters of a large, internationally known -˜fuel and power' producer recently stated - undoubtedly truthfully - that that company's training budget had not been cut during the current recession. However, the same executive went on to comment, off the record, that although the budget had not been cut, no one was allowed to spend any of it.
So, it is easy to see why surveys about the current size of training budgets are revealing optimistic results and even entertain the hope that organisations are being far-sighted enough to be developing their workers' skills to take advantage of the recovery as the when it comes along.
It also equally easy to see, however, why even the most successful learning materials producers are scratching around, looking for work.
For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning - especially elearning - and technology-related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
You can contact Bob.
