Corporate training or technical training - Which should you invest your training budget in?
Both are popular terms and seem self-explanatory. But, how are these different in practical terms, and which provides better bang for your buck?
Corporate training is actually a general term, and programs are traditionally aimed at improving soft skills of employees while "corporate" technical training programs are aimed at improving technical expertise of your employees.
Skills in traditional Corporate Training: Communication, Insightfulness, Empathy, Critical Thinking, etc
Skills in Tech Training: Machine Learning, Python, Data Science etc.
Read Also: Hiring Skilled Employees VS Training Employees Internally
Corporate training as we traditionally know it
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the term "corporate training"?
Perhaps soft skills training comes to mind, maybe compliance or sales and selling skills. Words like "leadership", "management" or "team building" are also high up on the list when individuals are asked over a quick word association exercise.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with these topics; as workplaces grow it is imperative that employees know how to connect and build relationships for professional growth.
There's always room for perpetual training in any organization. In one research, while 56% of HR Managers considered workplace training and development to be significant, there was a wide gap between belief and practice as nothing much is done in the area of employee training.
These types of training, in the traditional sense you are probably already thinking, in particular may be helpful for your employees to work better as a team, act appropriately according to company guidelines, have better leadership skills, etc.
Technical skills training: Corporate Training for the modern era
We are entering an era where the modern workforce is becoming increasingly reliant on technology to get things done; a time where one person can be empowered to perform the work of a small team in a fraction of the time.
Whilst soft skills, leadership skills and traditional workplace "efficiency" training will always have a place in professional culture, one might argue that training in emerging software and technologies can provide similar, if not higher ROI in terms of "corporate", or simply workforce, training.
If nothing else, technical skills are now essential skills that can complement traditional corporate training programs to help employees shine at their brightest.
How can technical skills boost your ROI?
So, perhaps you are reading this as:
- an executive who wants to be sure their enterprise is moving in the right direction for the 4th industrial revolution
- a manager who wants to make sure they get this biggest return for their training budget
- an employee of a company who wants to continue their growth trajectory.
Here's a few key value adds that tech training can do to enhance your team in 2020 and beyond:
Skill-up (and charge more) -- When your existing employees' skill-up, you can charge higher rates. They understand technology better and get more work done in less time with minimal errors. Clients will happily pay you more if they can get higher quality work done at a faster rate.
Improved resource utilization -- A skilled-up employee will no longer have to depend on another resource to solve technical issues. So, you save resource time and money.
Higher Productivity - For technologies such as Python, Tableau or Power BI, employees can learn how to process and visualize data in mere moments compared to hours or days using traditional manual methods or even basic excel functionality. These are low hanging fruits that can completely revitalize the way employees work across multiple departments.
Employee Retention -- This is a key issue faced by numerous companies across the globe. Proper technical training can help reduce the issue. If you provide technical training at the right time, employees will see that you care for their growth, and will stay loyal.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that there will be a gap of nearly 1.4 million between the number of open technical positions and qualified skilled workers. Also, new hires might not be a great fit even after initial on boarding and adjustment time. This is why it is important to prepare a technically skilled team in-house.
Better Management -- When lower-level and mid-level managers get technical training, your organization benefits immensely. This is because they play a role in training employees who report to them. Also, it helps these managers to better understand the tasks at hand, enabling them to have accurate performance reviews as well.
Stay Relevant In a Changing Market -- Technology trends keep changing, and when there is no timely update, your employees skills may go redundant, forcing you to lay off employees or go out of business.
Side by side:
Corporate TrainingTech Training Focused on employee performance, soft skills and morale Focused on job-specific skills and technical tactics It is a positive add-on to improve employee performance This is an essential part of any technology based organization Helps ensure employees adopt new working practices and standard to grow within company Helps ensure employees perform their job technically well to make business prosper Develops new skills: Leadership, Problem solving, customer communication, presentation Develops skills in IT technologies and tools: Tableau, Big Data, Python, Machine Learning Corporate training isn’t accurately quantifiable Tech Training is quantifiable
Key Statistics:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that there will be a gap of nearly 1.4 million between the number of open technical positions and qualified skilled workers. Also, new hires might not be a great fit even after initial onboarding and adjustment time. This is why it is important to prepare a technically skilled team in-house.
Early planning of the corporate onboarding process can save an immense amount of loss. In the UK, the cost of losing competent employees is adding up to £42bn. Usually, losing an employee in the first year itself can amount to three times the person's salary along with employee turnover.
The number of employers training and developing existing employees to fill open positions has doubled from 1 in 5 to over half.
A few technical skills today's up and coming workforce are expected to have knowledge in are:
a. Python
Python is the most sought-after, high-level, interpretable programming language which is found useful in almost any automation, analytical and intelligent solutions. Compatible with many other languages, Python provides extensive libraries of innovative components and tools for developers to develop a range of functionality and unique capabilities used in machine learning algorithms and big data operations.
b. Tableau
Tableau is quite a sophisticated tool for Data Visualization and helps your team's present data in a simplified, easy-to-understand manner. The tool contains aesthetic elements (colors, labels, and dimensions) to display accurate business insights that help business read trends and make informed decisions. Tableau skills allow users to create, edit and analyze worksheets built from various data sources.
c. Big Data and Machine learning
Considered as advanced disruptive technologies, Big data and Machine Learning form the foundation of myriad contemporary solutions visible on the front-end of digital software. They are so powerful and omnipresent; nearly any solution focused on data management and data utilization capitalizes massively on Big Data and Machine Learning. While Big Data skills are important in creating comprehensive data architecture, Machine Learning helps create powerful algorithms for automated operations across various industries.
Read Also: Why are Employers Spending More Money in Tech Training
Conclusion:
In conclusion, both corporate training and technical training go hand-in-hand and are very important for the long-term success of a corporate organization. But, Technical training is essential, and cannot be avoided if you are looking to stay relevant and improve your ROI.
We hope this article helped you grasp what corporate training and technical training is about, especially in the IT world and how they differ from one another.
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