Half of course delegates do not understand what they are there to learn because they have not been properly briefed by their manager, a poll of trainers has found.

According to a survey of 100 trainers, 56% of delegates do not understand what they need to learn and 73% had not discussed their training aims with their manager prior to the course.

And 90% of those polled admitted that not every delegate would understand why they were being trained.

Simon Morden chairman of training company Prosell, which conducted the survey, said that a failure to explain and evaluate the need for courses meant that UK managers were to blame for a lack of return on investment from training.

"It is imperative with any investment in training that the time and money is seen to be acting for the company, and that buy-in is achieved at both manager and employee level," he said.

"Training is most effective when line managers identify a need for individual employee improvement in a specific area and openly discuss how the training is going to address that issue.”

“The worrying lack of preparation by managers as evidenced by this research often creates the perception of ‘going on a jolly’ amongst their staff. If managers aren’t seen to value the training sufficiently to discuss it with their employees beforehand, how are staff to acknowledge the benefits and gain the most from it?"