Respected author and trainer Leslie Rae writes:

Recently I received a copy of ‘t’ magazine that sets outs to link training, education and employment, and was intrigued by a short report of some research into the training of staff in organizations. I do not know anything about the survey itself, but if it was representative, then the results quoted are very disappointing, ‘t’ magazine can be contacted at ‘ "t" Magazine, FREEPOST, Highburrow Lane Wilson Way, Pool, Redruth TR1 2BR, UK. The report entry reads:

Poor Show
The majority of companies are still training staff once a year, if that. This is one of the findings of a survey, carried out by GeoTrain, which showed that the average time between training courses was ten months.

One of the respondents had not received any training for nine years.

The survey also discovered that 75% of organizations don’t have a fixed employee training programme in place and only 1% of companies offer off-site tuition every month.
"While these findings are disappointing, they come as no surprise to me", said Jonathan Linsell, managing director of GeoTrain. "Many companies are still cynical about the business benefits brought by training and don’t have an organized programme as a result".

't' magazine commented: The sad thing is that this could have been written any time in the last 50 years despite countless new incentive programmes.’

What do you think? I would like to know how statistically valid and comprehensive the survey was, but being published gives it some credibility.

Leslie Rae
March 2000

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