IT Training Course Providers - What Should Be Considered? - 11th September 2009

To get the most of your IT training course provider, what do you need to consider?

IT training when carried out effectively, is an investment not an expense. What is important here is not how much we spend but rather what we can do better as a result and how this translates into you running your IT department in a more effective manner.

While this is not something which is easy to measure, there are a number of things which you can do to ensure that you are getting the best provider and course available for this particular requirement.

Prior to speaking to IT training provider, decide what options for delivery are options and which are not. Factors to consider are:

How long can I release staff for?

Can I release them all together?

Does my course need to be on a neutral site?

How far can my staff travel for IT training?

These are all crucial decisions to make which some people do not fully consider until after they are on the road to choosing a course provider who may not be able to address this problem completely.

The next step is to make a list of the IT training providers who can provide the training services which you need and communicate clearly with IT training providers giving them a good background of existing skill levels.

Be clear on the objectives you wish to achieve from this training. When the course is finished “what do you want attendees to be able to do which they could not before the course”. The clearer that you can be about this the more likely you will get what you want from the course. Thirdly set time aside to discuss any relevant topics surrounding the course which the training company may have, this may include speaking with a trainer. They may have suggestions which you had not previously thought of which may make the delivery of this training more effective.

Finally: have a checklist of questions which you may what to know about the IT training provider, these may include things such as:

Do they fully understand my objectives? Do they fully understand my objectives? When was the last time someone actually took the time to speak to you to gain an understanding of what you are trying to achieve?

Do they offer skill assessments before and after the IT training? For some organisations this is more important that others, however any good IT training provider should provide this as standard. In particular when your delegates walk into a training room on day one on order to prepare properly the trainer should have an idea of the backgrounds and skill levels of the delegates attending the training.

Does their course deliver the required level of customisation? You need to ask am I paying for chapters or modules which are of no relevance to how we do things here? Just as important to consider is that of there are any topics specific to what you do, see if these can be included. This will ensure that you gain as much as possible from purchasing this course. Training is an investment rather than an expense but that does not mean that you should not aim to get as much as possible from your investment!

Do they have experience in dealing with companies such as mine? This is a question which gets asked without enough thought being put in to what you are hoping to get as an answer from this. If you are in banking, do you want to know if they have delivered this course for other banks? If this is important, why is it? Perhaps it may be more important that they understand companies with similar compliance regulations or similar business drivers. So before you ask this consider question, think about the particular challenges which your delegates/team face and pose the question in a way which will address this.

Does the IT trainer have “in the field” experience in the area which is being taught? This is something which you should weigh up carefully. If you are looking for an advanced level of a specialist topic being taught it is very important that the trainer can relate to real life of examples which they have experienced for themselves. The thing to remember however is that many trainers are “expert trainers” and specialise in transferring knowledge from the designed course to delegates. When looking at training for beginner/intermediate levels this can at times be more important than the last “implementation/project” which they worked on. You should aim to find out something about the trainers background when considering which provides to use and assess which type of trainer is most suitable to “this course”. Remember the brightest, competent and knowledgeable expert in this technology may not be the best at teaching other!

What facilities are required if we need to run the course on our site? Depending on the course being taught there can be a requirement to have certain technology available for lab exercises. Some options on this can include you providing this, remote labs or hiring equipment specifically for the duration of the course. This is something which needs to be established early on as it could be an obstacle preventing you from using one location for course delivery over anther which you do not want to discover only later on in the process!!

Does the course represent value for money? Remember, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is the cheapest.

In short, you want to find a training provider who is committed to developing an ongoing working relationship with, who understand your business and the current challenges which you are facing in trying to increase operational efficiency within your IT department.

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