What is training money buying?

It is one thing to know how much is being spent, but the report also goes into what the money was spent on. Are companies leaning more toward technology driven training? What employee groups are receiving training? How much is spent on external training sources? What are the topics companies are investing training dollars on?

The percentages and dollar amounts may vary from other studies reported. The numbers differ some between studies due to the different companies used in the study and reporting methods.

Delivery using technology is rising and delivery in the classroom is decreasing. Spending on classroom training decreased from 2001 and is expected to decrease more in 2003. The amount of training via technology increased but the percentage of the training budget decreased. Both the amount of training through technology and the percentage spent on it are expected to increase in 2003. Of the technology training, 47 percent was spent on training presented via CD-Rom and 32 percent went to networked online training.

Small organizations spent the most on training from external sources (83 percent) and large organizations spent the least (29 percent). There was little change in the external sources used. More than 70 percent of the organizations paid consulting firms, universities, and independent contractors for training services. Only 27 percent used resources from federal, state, and local governments. Other resources used included junior colleges (67 percent), product suppliers (64 percent), vocational institutions (48 percent), and union and trade associations (36 percent).

Employee Groups and Topics
Employees in customer service and production received the highest increases of the training dollars. The biggest decrease in training expenditures was for executives and senior management.

The distribution of money across content topics did not change significantly. The highest percentage went to technical processes and procedures (13 percent) and managerial/supervisory (11 percent). The least amount went to basic skills (1 percent). The other topics listed included professional skills (10 percent), safety/compliance (10 percent), customer relations (9 percent), product knowledge (9 percent), orientation (7 percent), interpersonal (6 percent), business practices (5 percent), sales and dealer (4 percent), and executive development (3 percent).

Companies are paying close attention to where the training dollars are going and planning for the best return on those dollars.

To read more about the report read How much is the industry spending on training?: To view the Executive Summary or purchase the entire report, visit the ASTD site.