Training Course Delivery Options I: Onsite Training

As you have probably figured out by now, I teach FTIR training courses for a living. There are a number of ways training courses can be delivered including public courses, onsite training, and online over the internet. This post will be the first in a series discussing training course delivery options, and their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Onsite training refers to training held at a company site. It is “we will come to you” training. Typically, the company provides the training room, facilities, and gathers people from around the company in that room. Sometimes these people all work at the same physical location, other times I have seen a company fly people in from several locations to attend a class at a given site. Then, all the trainer has to do is show up with a PowerPoint presentation, training materials, and impart wisdom to the assembled group.

I feel the most important advantage of onsite training is it gives the instructor the chance to customize the course for you. A good trainer will tailor the content and length of an onsite course to match your experience level, instrumentation, applications, and budget. If the trainer you have hired does not offer course customization or refuses to do it, hire yourself another trainer. It is the customization aspect of onsite training that many companies cite as the main reason they hold such courses in the first place because it gives them the most relevant information per dollar than any other training course delivery option. Another of the beauties of onsite training is convenience; you and your co-workers don’t have to travel anywhere, except perhaps down the hall to your department’s meeting room.

The other advantages of onsite training come from having the instructor “captive” at your facility. This means hands-on training, live demonstrations, and one-on-one consultations are possible. Many people learn better by seeing and doing rather than sitting and listening, which is why hands-on training is such a good idea. Speaking for myself, since I am being paid to be at a company and provide advice, I am happy to answer questions at onsite courses outside of class, particularly over a beer or dinner (hint hint).

The way I and some other trainers charge for onsite training is as a flat rate per day plus a small charge per head for training materials. Travel costs are normally paid for by the client as well. The beauty of this pricing scheme is that it minimizes the cost per head of training. The price for teaching 5 people is almost the same as it is for 15 people. Thus, onsite training is ideal when there is a group of people at a given company that need training. In my experience if there are 5 or more people in a company that need training it is cheaper for the trainer to come them rather than vice versa.

Now, to be fair there are some disadvantages to onsite training. First, I find if attendees have access to their office, phones, and e-mail during the course the frequently get distracted, or worse yet are pulled out of the course to “fight fires”. This is wasteful of company money. It costs thousands of dollars to bring a trainer in for a course, and companies should maximize the transfer of information from the trainer to their employees by making sure each attendee is present for the entire course. To pull people away on other business is short sighted. What leaves me shaking my head is that too frequently the manager who approved the money for the training is the one pulling people out of class to deal with perceived emergencies. To combat this problem, some companies hold “onsite” training at an off-site facility such as a hotel. Without the distractions of work people will learn more, spend more time in class and will be more comfortable. The final disadvantage of onsite training is that it is not cost effective for small groups. If you have only two or three people that need training, training delivery options other than onsite courses should be explored.

In summary then, onsite training is a cost effective way of obtaining customized training for a group of people at a given company. For more on Spectros Associates’ onsite training courses click here: http://www.spectros1.com/course_custom.html .