Businesses are competing in a global economy and, therefore, need to have skilled resources that allow organisations to be one step ahead of the competition, says Dr Madelise Grobler MD at Bytes People Solutions.
Grobler believes training and e-learning play a pivotal role in a working environment, saying training should be structured around strategies which support the company's business plan.
In that vein, ITWeb and Bytes People Solutions are carrying out a survey to get a clear understanding of how different organisations approach training and e-learning.
“If training and e-learning are well managed and implemented, organisations should have capable resources to ensure that their business objectives are met,” she says.
Grobler says supporting further education strategies sends a message to employees that the company is interested and prepared to invest in the development of its people.
“Training and e-learning should be an incentive for employees to increase skills relevant to the business and, therefore, indirectly contributing to the bottom-line. Meeting business outcomes can also be achieved sooner as employees will be more efficient and effective,” she adds.
Grobler also explains that organisations should recognise the role of training and e-learning in competing effectively and quickly in the dynamic marketplace of the knowledge-based economy as demand for performance improvement is also on the increase.
Implementing e-learning, she says, promises substantial benefits for organisations. “It will potentially eliminate corporate training travel budgets, save 50% in training time, and cut an estimated 40% to 60% from conventional classroom training costs.”
She also says the norm among many companies is to offer training to skills that are mission-critical to the business.
“The question, however, is: 'What is mission-critical skill?' Companies will have different views on this, but tend to focus more on attaining the level of technical skill,” she says.
However, Grobler notes that training on management skills, client service, sales are often not done, or only available to a selected few.
To ensure that training and e-learning initiatives pay off, Grobler says organisations should allocate a fixed percentage of turnover specifically for training.
Grobler also believes that the education system should do much in regards to training and e-learning.
“I strongly believe that the promotion of training can improve, as one of our key challenges that we face today is that there is not enough scholars that have the ability to pursue a higher or further education programme.
“Countries like Columbia created an organisation similar to our SETA but with one big difference. They assess people's skills for admission into learning programmes for scarce skills. I believe that e-learning is one of the areas less time and money is spent”, she says.
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