As more and more companies cut back on training in response to economic realities, BBBEE codes and skills development targets ensure that some training continues to happen. “There’s always a correlation between the economy, the state of the industry and the state of training at any given time,” says head of sales and marketing at No Ordinary Corporation, Jenny Purchase. A lot of the training done is technical training, says Purchase, which is crucial. “As the industry by and large employs much older and then younger individuals there is a need to focus on personal development, leadership skills and understanding the value of different generations in the workplace.” However one of the challenges the industry faces in learning – specifically accredited learning – is literacy of the lower level learners. “Accredited learning requires an extensive amount of written assessments, which learners find difficult to complete in the time provided. This potentially weakens the impact of the actual learning and makes it a tick-box exercise (ie, just do the training and complete the assessment so that you can get a certificate. The upside of accredited learning is the Quality Control factor, which means that if you do use accredited training, you know that a quality body has approved the content of the programme as relevant and required in this particular field of study.”
INSERT: We all know that in spite of the adage – ‘our people are our greatest assets’. – Jenny Purchase
