Are You Getting Enough Say In Your Training?

DrEducator asks: "Has your company ever contracted external instructors to train its programmers? Have you been satisfied with the lecturer's level of expertise? I think we all have a good grasp of how vital the role of training is to both a corporation and its employees, but given its importance should you have more of a say in selecting or evaluating instructors before they deliver training? I firmly believe in the tenet that 'geeks should train geeks'. Moreover, I think that the geeks themselves have to take a more active role in the whole process. So, I'm curious - do you think you have enough say in your training? Do you actively refer instructors that you've seen at conferences or previously taken courses from (university, college, or adult ed)? If not, have you had the opportunity to interview an instructor, or at least review their qualifications? Share your experience - how much input do you want/need/have?"

Comments

Re:I have pretty good control

[elmegil]

That argument doesn't hold a lot of water. Quite honestly, I don't see a lot of Universities caring how they spend taxpayer's money on other things, and the University I was at was a private school with no taxpayer funding that I was aware of. Certainly not in large part. Finally, corporations have exaxctly the same problem--train someone and then they leave for higher pay. Perhaps the pay bump is not quite so huge (I was getting twice my Uni salary within 3 years in the corporate world), but the issue still exists. As far as it goes, if Universities would pay people competetively, they might be able to keep them...provide competive pay and other reasonable benefits, and they should have no more trouble than any other IT employer.