Justifying training

Picture this scenario. You've spent $5000 over the past 12 months on training your most promising technical staff member on the ins and outs of Vendor A's latest range of security solutions.

Your investment is starting to pay off. You have someone on the ground with technical skills that relate to Vendor A's kit that your organisation has not had before.

You think back to the time when you were cursing parting ways with money for training. Now, suddenly, that $5000 seems like money well spent.

That is, of course, until your staff member decides that he wants to take his skills somewhere else and subsequently ejects himself from your organisation.

He is armed with more skills earned in one month that he acquired in the whole four years of his computer science degree. And he's taken a few steps up the pay scale with an offer from another, larger organisation that you cannot match.

Unfortunately you're left with egg on your face and a wallet that's a great deal lighter.

This is just one quandary that business owners like you face when you have to decide whether it is worth investing in technical and sales training for your staff.

Our cover story this week (page 22) gets to the very heart of the issue, examining the pros and cons or vendor-led and independent IT training and certification. Some argue that the time spent outside the office on training, and costs associated with it, makes it difficult for many companies to justify the expense.

Others, it seems, don't even want to pay for it and feel that it is the responsibility of the vendor to make sure its channel is trained properly without having to sit through a few hours worth of 'Death by PowerPoint'.

Whatever your view, as a reseller, I would imagine training costs are an expense that sometimes you wish you could do without.

What's your view? Are vendor-led training and certification courses worth the effort for you? What would like to be trained on? I'd like to know your thoughts.

Byron Connolly is editor of CRN. He can be contacted on (02) 8399 7648 or via email at bconnolly@techpartner.news.