6 Responses

1. I’ve found….
   Hi Amanda,
   As an external training provider, I’ve found in the UK market off peak is generally December and January, with August often thrown in for good measure – though if it’s a cool July a lot of late training bookings seem to come through the door. However as I work internationally I tend to find that this is only a general rule in Europe, in North America its November and December that are off peak, in the Middle East its February/March – so I suppose the real answer to your question is that it depends where you are working.

   Very best regards,

   Megan

2. Training peaks and troughs
   Amanda
   I would echo Megan’s comments. In the UK, late December and early January are quiet, though for us August is definitely the quietest month as a whole. For some topics, Bank Holiday weeks can be quiet too. All this is due to holidays. April can also be patchy (perhaps because of the financial year, perhaps because of personal development planning processes).
   Busiest periods are February and March followed by October, November and June.
   Graham

3. External training peak times
   I have found that July, September and December are our worst months for providing external training – whether coaching, train the trainer or workshops. August has always been relatively good, strangely. We all take our hols in July and September now. Interestingly we find January very good. So I guess it’s pretty patchy depending on industry, client and geography. Our busiest months are February, May and October.

4. It’s all about budgets
   The main off peak periods from my experience as a training provider were Holiday time (unsurprisingly). Busy periods were Feb and March as the training budget quickly gets used up before end of financial year and Spetember/October when the planned projects from this year’s budget round finally come to fruition. Not scientific nor strategic I’m afraid. Ah well….

5. school holidays
   I try to avoid school holidays, plus any week that includes a bank holiday.
   The reason for this: due to work demands, staff release can be difficult at any time. However, during the above periods the demands are increased as staffing levels decrease.
   Best wishes
   Amanda

6. Most is off peak
   In my experience, a training centre only runs at peak capacity for a few months in the year: the latter part of September, then the months of October and usually February and March or April. The rest of the time there is always spare space. If you are looking to stike a deal with your training provider, the particularly low months are late July, August, December and January.

   As noted elsewhere, around Easter and Bank Holiday weeks will also be slacker periods. Training also gets hit by the European and World Cups, so if you can hold out until June/July next year you might be able to swing a deal!