No Image Available

Rus Slater

Coach and Courses

Consultant

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1705321608055-0’); });

leading by example?

default-16x9

Headline on The Times, 24 December 2009;

"Army halts soldiers' training to cut costs"

Regardless of politics, does this send the right message about training as a cost as opposed to an investment?

4 Responses

  1. Training

    The price of everything – the value of nothing! This will return later to bite the politicians in the rear

     

    Dominic

     

     

     

    QED Training qedworks.com

  2. Depends

    My answer would be: ‘It Depends’.

    • It depends whether the training was focussed on real needs and requirements.
    • It depends on whether the training was well designed to engage the learners.
    • It depends if the training was timely.

    It depends on a lot of things. All the above will determine whether it results in tragedy or an effective saving. I don’t know the specifics of the case Rus so I have no opinion other than this.

     

  3. Cost cutting in the army

    To echo gary’s point I have an example of what is actually happening rather than the tabloid reports:

    My son is in the Officer training corps and the cuts have been specifically aimed at the likes of them (the OTC is not now and never will be an operational unit). The activities which fall into this category are seen , in less restricted times, as good for the development of the cadets such as free fall parachuting and endurance events. On these trips the attendees are usually paid which offsets the cost of the trip whish they still have to find. These activities are still continuing as many cadets decide to fund themselves and go without the pay .

    My son has friends in the TA and several serving now in Afganistan and they tell him that no essential training has been affected and they are getting all the kit  they need.

    On the general question of the value of training, if more training managers spent more time on communicating the value of the activity they sponsor to the business they might receive increased budgets and not cuts. This has certainly been my experience as a consultant and training manager.

    Cheers.

  4. Sir Tom Farmer

    I was at a networking event at the end of last year and the speaker was Sir Tom Farmer, the founder of Kwik Fit. He stated that his principle was that in times of economic downturn, the 2 things he ALWAYS increased were advertising and training.

    Seems to have stood him in fairly good stead!

    Sue

No Image Available
Rus Slater

Consultant

Read more from Rus Slater