Contrary to popular belief, outsourcing is not an ‘either/or’ proposition. Many training professionals view training outsourcing as something either you do, or not do.
In informal conversations with managers and employees of training, I like to ask “does your company currently outsource training?” The most frequent answer to the question is an emphatic ‘NO’! But when asked if they have ever used a supplier for developing courseware; or if they have ever delivered training in a hotel or external facility; or if they have ever brought in an external instructor or consultant to deliver a training course, virtually all of them answer ‘YES’.
This misunderstanding of what outsourcing means is hurting our industry because it affects objective decision making around how to source training. Let’s face it; we all depend on outsourcing to get our job done. And what’s more, while the job market for training professionals inside Fortune 1000 companies has decreased by 6% over the past 3 years, the job market on the supplier side of training has grown by more than 12%.
I believe suppliers are the life line of our industry. Virtually all innovation in training processes and technologies come from the supply side of our industry.
Here is some interesting data regarding how much company’s use training outsourcing as a business strategy. In 2003, TrainingOutsourcing.com conducted a study of 30 Fortune 1000 companies to understand how they spent their training budgets. We found that 100% of the companies studied used external suppliers for some part of their training activities. Regarding how they spent their budgets for training, an average of 39% of their training budgets went to external suppliers (and 61% for internal resources). Based on the growth of training outsourcing in the past 5 years, it appears the relative amount of dollars spent for external suppliers (vs. internal resources) will continue to grow.
