Engagement matters – HR and L&D can work together when they get engaged

At the Plateau Insights user conference – which took place in the ancient city of Rome – learning experts took on an age-old issue.   Is the LMS dead? Plateau CEO, Paul Sparta, quizzed the panel of Clive Shepherd, Donald Taylor and Nigel Paine for their expert knowledge. One of the themes they picked up […]

Councils to take part in mentoring scheme

Five councils have been selected to take part in ‘work pairing’ trials, in which young people are teamed up with mentors in local small-to-medium businesses in order to gain work experience.  The work placements will last up to 10 weeks and, if successful, the coalition government plans to extend the scheme to 50,000 trainees nationally. […]

Training budgets continue to be squeezed

The trend towards shifting increasing amounts of training provision in-house to cope with budget cuts seems unlikely to change over the year ahead, with two out of five organisations anticipating further squeezes.  According to a survey among 600 private and public sector organisations undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, some 43% saw […]

Vocational training scheme to help jobless

At the same time as the coalition government revealed that Jobseekers who fail to take up compulsory training will lose their benefits, the business community has warned against sidelining vocational education in favour of more academic subjects.  As part of the government’s new ‘claimant contract’, Employment Minister Chris Grayling indicated that people who were unable […]

Social media – the new learning diet pill?

With any area of dissatisfaction there’s a natural human desire for the one stop cure – the silver bullet. Take the slimming pill. Now, intellectually and rationally we all know that losing weight is tricky but there’s only one sure way of achieving success – eat less, do more. It’s not a secret which is […]

£50 million to stop skills shortages holding back economy

The coalition government has unveiled a £50 million training pot in a bid to encourage employers to “take collective action” on tackling skills shortages that are acting as a brake on economic growth.  Business Secretary Vince Cable said that the new Growth and Innovation Fund, which will initially cover the years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, was […]

Employers should train youngsters to develop business skills

Employers should be given subsidies to train young apprentices and provide internships to 16 to 19 year-olds so that they can “develop the general skills which the labour market demonstrably values”, a report has recommended.  The findings were revealed in an independent review commissioned by Education Secretary Michael Gove and undertaken by Alison Wolf, the […]

Training valued by employees, overlooked by employers

Although nearly three quarters of staff consider learning and development opportunities to be as important as salary when choosing their next job, more than half are currently receiving no training from their employer.  According to a survey of 700 learning and development managers and staff within both commercial and IT departments undertaken by training provider […]

Reed Learning partners with ASTD to deliver training certification

Reed Learning has launched its UK partnership with the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD).   Although the official announcement will not come until next month, a breakfast briefing held in London on 17 February confirmed the move, which has been interpreted by some as a challenge to the CIPD for their members who […]

Vox pops from Learning Technologies 2011 – Day 1

Last week HRZone joined TrainingZone at the Learning Technologies event at Olympia. We asked attendees: What changes would YOU like to see in L&D in 2011?

HR development not prioritised in budgets

Although three quarters of UK managers see staff development as a key priority over the year ahead in order to generate organisational growth and competitive advantage, HR personnel are not being included in the mix.  According to a survey of 2,500 HR and non-HR senior managers from private and public sector organisations employing more than […]

Training a priority in budgets, say managers

A huge 83% of UK managers expect their training budgets to either remain static or increase over the year ahead, with two thirds saying that they have been unaffected by the difficult economic conditions.  Moreover, according to a survey among 96 business decision-makers undertaken by e-learning provider SkillSoft, a massive 95% said that they now […]

Invest in customer service skills, urges survey

As the consumer spending market becomes increasingly fragile, organisations must invest in developing staff customer service skills in order to avoid losing business and suffering the effects of a tarnished reputation.  According to a survey among 2,082 UK adults undertaken by YouGov on behalf of training provider Kaplan, some 47% indicated that they had boycotted […]

IT and comms falling behind – Unite calls for better training

Unite is calling on employers in the IT and communications sector to improve their training and appraisal practices after research revealed widespread dissatisfaction among staff.  A survey of just under 400 personnel working for firms ranging from Accenture and Apple to Capita and Hewlett-Packard undertaken by the union revealed that 62% were not receiving the […]

Invest in development to reap tourism rewards

A tourism body has warned brands that they will need to invest in customer service training if they are to exploit a potential £2 billion in revenues from visitors to the London 2012 Olympics.  People 1st, the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel industries, said it was crucial that organisations learn […]

Take the pain out of training seasonal staff

The customers that pack your stores during the festive period don’t know – or care – whether a member of staff is seasonal or permanent. They just know that the employee represents your business. And that means, as well as compelling product range and product availability, customers expect prompt answers to any queries they have […]

UK skills body to be scrapped

The coalition government revealed it was scrapping the sector skills council for lifelong learning just as a new report indicated that greater skills investment would be crucial to achieve the sustained private sector-led recovery for which it hopes.   Following a review undertaken by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), the Department for Business […]

Informal learning and driving innovation future of L&D and HR

Ever increasing interest in informal and continuous learning will be the key driver for change in the learning and development function over the next 10 years.  According to a report published by research and consulting firm Bersin & Associates, this growing focus on informal and continuous learning will result in the further adoption of internal […]

More than half don’t measure training impact

Just over half of organisations fail to measure the business impact of their training programmes due to both a lack of resources and personnel qualified to do so.  According to a study among 412 learning and development decision-makers across the world, other key reasons for failing to gauge outcomes included confusion about what actually should […]

Opinion: What will the skills strategy really mean for business?

Terry Watts, CEO of Proskills, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for process and manufacturing, comments on the new skills strategy and explains what this really means for businesses and the future of skills in our workforce. The government’s new skills strategy, ‘Skills for Sustainable Growth’ paints a very colourful picture for the future of skills […]