When there’s not much money around and against the backdrop of a dynamic, delivery focused industry with tight margins it is no surprise that the idea of training people in non-compliance subjects such as Management Skills or Lean Manufacturing Tools and Techniques can be a difficult sell internally especially when there is a price tag involved.
So in this environment when a training company or college comes along and says that you can get training for free by pulling down some government funding it’s a bit of a “no brainer” as they say. But while there is nothing wrong in looking for help from the government to fund training it is my belief that an over-reliance on funding has, at times encouraged an industry approach that is a bit like putting the proverbial cart before the horse, which doesn’t always focus on establishing a clear and measurable return for the business.
Of course it’s not the funding per se that is the issue, it’s more the way the training industry has evolved as the conduit through which to access it. This funding model can encourage a businesses to approach training from the wrong way around in that the business finds training that can pull down funding, looks to see how it can be used, and then works out how to measure the return, instead of identifying a required increase in performance or business improvement and then thinking about what interventions are required to increase the skills and knowledge or change behaviour in that area.
Starting with the end result clearly in mind means the interventions are targeted specifically to get the results required and will probably be a combination of classroom training, coaching and on-job learning. Looked at this way round measuring ROI becomes much easier because we can simply measure how much of what we wanted we have got as a result of the intervention. Of course there is no harm in looking to see if there is any funding available for the specific interventions we have identified but whether we find any or not the training should stand upon its own merit as an investment that has returned through real measurable performance improvement that added some value to the business.
