Why don't companies train anymore

Reckless_Saving

When I started out in the 90s it was a short period of on-boarding and combination of self learning and mentoring/knowledge sharing between peers on the job, no access to internet at this point, if you're lucky you may have access to a book. You could usually gaunentee a weeks external training per year, my only gripe on this was at start of each year you'd be asked what are your training needs are, normally it would be I want to go on this course and it would be best for me and company to aim to take it last quarter of the year when I can benefit from the knowledge gained in my job. Reality would be you'd get a call a couple of weeks later saying they've booked you on a course in two weeks hence.

Back then I'd be focused on around 3 technology areas, what's changed now is my technology areas have greaterly increased 10+ and external courses have largely been replaced with online training subscriptions with you managing your self learning and the vast knowledge shared on the internet from other users. I see this as a vast improvement in learning although having so many technology areas isn't great for maintain the knowledge, some I'll actively keep current and improve, others are parked until the need arises and then have to take more time relearning.

The area which I found has changed for the worst and this maybe specific to the employer and within that certain areas only, is the management of the recruitment and on-boarding. In the past the line manager would be very close to the work the employee was doing as usually they'd be involved in the same work. These days the concept of a department is in name only, it's now treated as pool resource with skillsets farmed out internally to projects where the match can be imperfect. The line managers are out of touch with work needed and how to intergrate new starters with project managers to which they don't manage integrating new people into their project teams - it's a sort of lip-service "yes we'll deal with it" but they don't, line managers are powerless then ensure the projects make it happen - that people management skillset is lost.

We've had more than is healthy situations where we've have new starters and the odd contractor where a couple of months in they've walked away, managers stick their head in the sands that they are the problem. The silverlining is it can be done right, we've had someone newly assigned to my area and I made clear to the managers that I would be allocating time to proper on-boarding/mentoring and he's flying - should have a keeper.

p00hsticks

yexx wrote: »

In my new job, I've spent the last two weeks not only teaching myself the database which I am supposed to administrate

I'm surprised that your employer took you on as a Database Administrator if you didn't already know the ropes. In my experience, when recruiting for such a role you'd expect the applicants to have the basic knowledge already, and then be prepared to pay for them to go on any necessary training courses related to any upgrades or new releases that came along later.

Gavin83

p00hsticks wrote: »

I'm surprised that your employer took you on as a Database Administrator if you didn't already know the ropes. In my experience, when recruiting for such a role you'd expect the applicants to have the basic knowledge already, and then be prepared to pay for them to go on any necessary training courses related to any upgrades or new releases that came along later.

I assume he meant day to day tasks as a normal user rather than actually administering it. I’m a DBA and I agree with you there’s no way a company would take someone on in this position without sufficient knowledge. If they didn’t want to fund a proper DBA (which aren’t cheap) they normally just get some other techy person (server admin, etc) to do the role.

It’s not a role you can step into and do with no knowledge or training.

eamon

Training is a subjective term.



If you are not applying for a trainee role then the employer expects a successful applicant to land almost ready to go bar an induction of some sort and a few weeks to get to grips with process & systems.


My employer does lots of refresher type training. IMHO this training is usually geared at tasks/occupations were if not performed correctly all the time may result in personal injury. Other types of training that require funding will usually be accompanied by some form of claw back agreement.

Brummie85

Training is a joint responsibility. Ultimately an employee does share some duty in respect of maintaining their knowledge and developing skills to changing standards, regulations etc.

The difficulty is that finding the time to keep up is often difficult. I recently looked into completing an NVQ, but was told that that the business couldn't offer me the time to study. I put in a solid request outlining the reasons why, benefits and offering to pay for the course..but was still told no. Had I been able to find a centre running it as an evening or weekend course I would have just done that and not bothered them at all.

But on the other hand, they're dishing out time and money for HV A.P training because they need to provide trained people to comply with the terms of contract with the customer. The shame is that the training isn't followed up. Essentially the guys are doing the course away from site and are then expected to just be able to switch in an emergency. Doing a course doesn't make you confident or competent, but their concerns are falling on deaf ears.