Why don't companies train anymore

yexx

I've been working in various fields for many years and am shocked at how companies view their responsibility on training, namely how it's simply left for workers to train themselves. Considering how technical and precise some work is, leaving an individual to self-train isn't reasonable or reliable yet the idea has caught on fast and I want to know why.

In my experience the onus is usually left to the employee to teach themselves. Though some of this has to be expected of course, much of it wouldn't be reasonable to know. So learning requires trial and error such as making costly errors to the business on the computer system or wasting large quantities of stock or tools in the attempt to teach myself my own job. Obviously this makes managers cross, but they can become seriously resentful if I have ever successfully manage to actually get them to tell me anything, and in some cases they have tried to seek revenge for it.

In my new job, I've spent the last two weeks not only teaching myself the database which I am supposed to administrate, but on Tuesday morning I have prepared a presentation for my managers on how a team is supposed to work. I am literally going to teach them how to do their own jobs. Why? Because they're a mess, their customers are furious, they know I'm excellent with demanding corporate clients, they trust me and like me, and afterwards, I MIGHT get to be trained in their technical field.

Can I ask what is going on. Because the agreement years ago was that companies would train up employees to standard. That was the score with my parents, their parents, and their parents ectera. Now it's all gone. Where are the technical schools you can walk into and get trained up into a trade. NVQ? Need an existing job. Apprenticeship? Need to be under 21 to be taken seriously. City of Guilds? Need existing connections. Learn to code? LOL

In my career, where I can, I have always been interested and liberal about sharing knowledge. Where there was no education for new recruits, I filled in for it happily and enthusiastically, made training guides from scratch, did everything to ensure others did not have to go through the same same arduous and painstaking experience. This is something I don't do anymore, because I've learned that management will start rearing their heads and see a wild trouble-maker on the loose.

So tell me everyone: why don't companies train anymore. I know they once used to, because the previous generation was trained up, given tools, capital and resources, and set to work. This generation did not. Did corporations get too greedy for outsourcing? Or do they feel they are not allowed to? Did the state grow too large and take the place of the educator?

Blatchford

Much as I would generally love to employer bash, actually training these days is almost too easy to access. Whether that translates into actual employment is a different matter , and that is the measure of the employer. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 62 and I really don't recall that golden age you are speaking about.

DCFC79

The last employer I was at was ok at training, would have preferred a longer period where I was working with the more experienced colleague.

yexx

Blatchford wrote: »

Much as I would generally love to employer bash, actually training these days is almost too easy to access. Whether that translates into actual employment is a different matter , and that is the measure of the employer. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 62 and I really don't recall that golden age you are speaking about.

Oh I'm not saying it was all easy back then or something. It would be nice if employers invested in recruits more. But what do you mean about training being easy to access. I've found it virtually impossible to find meaningful workplace training from any source. Ok there's the internet, but I'm talking about the equation training --> then job. Not easy to find that now.

Davy_Jones_II

My bank takes graduates on, puts them through a couple of months of classroom training, and then six months of rotating through various business areas before they are placed onto a desk and start their learning on the job and continuous formal learning.

That seems like a pretty decent way to do it.

Blatchford

Most of the employers that I know offer apprenticeships up to and including degree level training. In fact, most of them can't recruit enough apprentices, even including existing staff taking up apprentice courses. And that's with apprentices at new entry level, no experience and skills entering at REAL living wage and advanced apprenticeships for existing staff on existing salaries - often in excess of £30k - 40k.

Cornucopia

I think it varies quite a bit between industries and between employers. My experience in the IT industry is that employers are okay with developmental training broadly upon a person's existing career direction, but suggest that someone could be cross-trained from one skill area to another and that is seen as a very high-risk strategy that won't be entertained unless the department is in a serious skills shortfall (or sometimes if the old skillset is end-of-life).

Despite the rise of professional HR departments, even quite big organisations don't seem to understand the key disciplines of deploying people and training them.

trailingspouse

I sort of half agree with you.
I've just started a new job. Some of the training is excellent - I've actually been put on a course that is industry-recognised (it's a qualification that I can take with me if I leave), and could, if I wanted to take it that far, lead to a degree. I'm given two hours a week within work to do it. Absolutely no complaints.



On the other hand, when it comes to the nitty-gritty day-to-day stuff like how to use the phone system, how to work the stock-control system, and such like, I've been left to either work it out for myself (with variable results) or ask someone to show me (only possible if both they and I have the time, which often we don't).

[Deleted User]

My new job is two weeks on the job training but always to ask questions if unsure.
I worked in an insurance call centre last year that trained for weeks and by the end of it made many of us nervous.

My last colleague to join ex workplace whatever you told them one day, they would forget the next. They had a knack of making us do their work, I never saw anything like it. Instead of asking questions/getting involved in tricky situations and helping themselves they used to ensure they got sent home early. My LM used to send folk home who didn't care what they were doing. Though they have months and possibly years of this person not going anywhere as there is no self-awareness of how they are performing.
It really was an eye-opener.

Elinore

My employer used to offer all sorts of training and was REALLY passionate about progression and learning.

They got thrown over so many times with people leaving then not paying the training back (they chased for the money) and throwing up all sorts of smoke screens why they shouldn't have to pay it back that the time and effort to manage it became so cumbersome. (not unsimilar to some of the threads I've seen here regarding trying to unwind from training agreements)

It was mainly the non finishers that put the nail in the coffin - giving 'family stresses' or 'mental health' reasons when the individuals freely admitted they wanted the training but hadn't realised that they would actually have to work for it - meaning they had coughed up for a course that essentially would never be realised. My employer decided to give it up for a bad deal.

We now have some online nasty click-through learning centre where you print your own certificate (and has no real-world value at all)

Its such a shame.

Pennywise

Well, certainly in the accountancy profession, it's still the case that trainee accountants are usually heavily supported by their employers with in-house training, paid for external courses, paid exams, paid exam leave, etc. Some of the bigger accountancy firms are working with universities such as PWC who have a scheme where they take on graduates with guaranteed paid summer placements throughout their 3 year Uni course, with the optional option of a year out working (paid for) in one of their offices.

There are a growing number of apprentice schemes, from the likes of BAE, BNFL, etc.

So I think there is still plenty of employer supported training for specific professions/occupations, etc., particularly where the employer hopes the trainee will stay for the longer term.

Where I think it's not so good is more general, transferable skills, etc., where employers may not be so keen to pay/support in the knowledge that the employee will probably not hang around long enough to benefit the company.