Press Release Summary = This market report examines the UK training market which, in 2006, appears to be static, although there may be pockets of growth. It is observed that even the most optimistic people in the industry are saying that the market as a whole does not appear to be growing. The key reasons appear to be that profitability in many of the UK\'s companies is severely under pressure and fee rates in the training sector are being reduced
Press Release Body = Training:Market Report 2006 This market report examines the UK training market which, in 2006, appears to be static, although there may be pockets of growth. It is observed that even the most optimistic people in the industry are saying that the market as a whole does not appear to be growing. The key reasons appear to be that profitability in many of the UK\'s companies is severely under pressure and fee rates in the training sector are being reduced. The other reason is that the training sector is still struggling to make the economic case for training and development.
It has been estimated that, in 2005/2006, employer expenditure on off-the-job training in the UK amounted to £18.43bn, a decrease of 0.3% on 2004/2005. The main source of public-sector spending, the Learning and Skills Council, had a budget of £10.4bn in the financial year 2005/2006.
The industry is beset by a number of issues. Clients are facing pressures of time and very tight training budgets. Short courses have become popular, with an increase in bite-size learning, so much so that some courses sound more like speed-dating and speed-networking than training. E-learning has proved a disappointment, but it is by no means dead. Indeed, it is likely to grow as companies better understand how to use it.
Another trend seems to be that courses that provide some obvious clear-cut benefit, i.e. how to comply with new legislation, are selling well, whereas other types of courses, such as managing diverse groups of people (diversity training) or emotional intelligence, are less in demand.
The term `talent management\' has soared into the vocabulary of the industry, but everyone is using it to mean different things. One of the perennial facets of the training industry is that, like the management consultancy sector, it is forever creating new fashions. However, like the fabled `emperor\'s clothes\', the fashions sometimes turn out to be a chimera of the imagination. Finally, the question that is often asked - how do we know when training is taking place? - is still a subject of discussion. This question is followed by an even more pertinent one - how do we know if it is doing us any good? As this report shows, evaluation remains a central issue in training.
This report includes some of the results from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development\'s (CIPD\'s) survey into organisations\' attitudes and practices regarding training. It also includes some broader comments from the CIPD\'s Training Adviser, Martyn Sloman. Sloman recently travelled around Europe, the US and China researching training practices.
It is forecasted that, between 2006/2007 and 2010/2011, the UK training market, as measured by employer expenditure on off-the-job training, will experience modest growth, rising by 1% per annum from 2007/2008.
2025
