Brain Drain Fear Means IT Training Suffers

Short-sighted IT managers refuse to bankroll certified training courses due to worries about staff churn.

An industry survey has revealed that IT managers are refusing to invest in the professional development of their staff.

The poll by of 100 IT professionals by The Training Camp revealed that over half of those seeking to obtain professional qualifications were forced to pay training course fees out of their own pockets.

The Training Camp has also discovered that managers refuse to foot the bill because they are worried about newly qualified staff leaving or demanding higher wages. IT managers instead prefer to send staff on courses that don’t offer industry standard certifications.

To give the employer peace of mind, The Training Camp recommends both parties sign a human capital guarantee contract that ensures an employee remains in a job for a set period after a qualification has been awarded. A sample can be obtained for free from The Training Camp website.

"Unfortunately, most managers are reluctant to bankroll courses that end in a certified exam," said Robert Chapman, co-founder of The Training Camp. "This is because they fear students will use the industry qualifications as a passport to jump ship."

"This attitude, however, is fundamentally flawed. Without a recognised assessment, there is no way managers can know for sure if a student has acquired any useful skills or simply spent two weeks dozing at the back of a classroom."

Training expert Alan Bellinger agrees: "Managers need to put more trust in staff and recognise that a qualified workforce is an asset. Ultimately, if the employer doesn’t fund the course, students will go out and fund it for themselves anyway."

The Training Camp provides accelerated learning courses for busy IT professionals. It is the fastest growing IT training company in the UK, with 200% growth over the last year.

Students spend up to fourteen days on a residential training site and receive an average of 170 hours intense tuition. It is an attractive proposition for contractors, whose time commands very high premiums, and employers who need to minimise staff absence.

The Training Camp has an above average pass rate of 85% - confounding critics’ claims that accelerated learning fails to produce results.

The Training Camp UK offers a range of courses including: MCSE; MCSA; MCDBA; A+/Network+; CCNA; CCNP; Security; Oracle and Linux, among others.