The labor costs associated with training are, by far, the single biggest cost factor relating to that activity. Labor costs, in most instances, exceed all the money you may have invested in vendor courseware and/or instructors — combined! And yet, there is an effective and easy way to minimize those labor costs and, at the same time, dramatically improve your training initiatives. The shortcomings of traditional methods to keep up with rapid...
So much conversation regarding training these days centers on E-Learning. The practical benefits of E-Learning are obvious: 24×7 access and its availability anytime/anywhere. But, ignored much too often, are the learning values that do not exist with most current E-Learning courses -– primarily because almost all current E-Learning ignores the necessity of full-screen, video-based training that is central to the learning culture of today’s workforce. If training values (including high retention rates...
Beware of the oft-used title — “customer service.” As practiced today, customer service is merely a response department in which their sole job is to respond to complaints, error reports and other problems. What you should be looking for is a courseware vendor that practices “customer assurance” — a training vendor that is always thinking “customers” — from initial development through service-after-the-sale. It all starts with courseware development. And, I’m not talking...
Today many corporations are either developing for themselves and/or looking for support from a vendor in order to address their specific training needs. If you choose the latter route, you need to choose a vendor that will listen, be able to understand what you want to achieve, and then work with your organization in order to design and/or implement a training program that will meet your objectives. The key to any successful...
For most of the training requirements within your organization, effectively designed and produced generic courseware will meet your needs. However, you will occasionally require specialized custom programming designed to address items that are specific to your organization’s procedures, policies or specific equipment. What should you look for? To begin, you should select a producing organization that has a long track record of creating similar multiple-media training programs for their customers. And, they...
What do you want to accomplish with your training initiatives? If you are charged with the industrial skills training initiatives, do your objectives include minimizing downtime, reducing scrap, cross training your workforce? Or, are those objectives really tied to a “CYA” strategy? In other words, are you going to justify your training initiatives by showing management the improvement results that you can demonstrate by comparing pre-test and final exam scores? If, after...
Thirty-five years ago today — February 7, 1977 — ITC began business as a corporation. William J. Schmidt, Gerald H. Kaiz and I were the founders. However, this blog is not about the people who were associated with ITC, it is about some of the “outside” individuals who made this all possible. Leading that list, of course, are the customers — more than 6000 organizations worldwide. And, it’s not just those numbers...
For organizations in the process and manufacturing industries, applied technical competence is the basis for increasing productivity and quality while minimizing downtime and re-work. The IOP (Institute of Physics) describes competence as: “’the ability to perform activities to the standards required in employment, using an appropriate mix of knowledge, skills and attitude.’ All three aspects must be present if someone is to be effective in the workplace. To improve competence you need...