It’s been too long since I blogged about IT learning, the amount of “real” work needed to be done so far in 2010 has been greater than normal (whatever that is). While this is good, it got me to thinking about IT training resourcing.  We hear it all over the place, 2010 will be better than 2009. How the economy is rebounding and growth is coming back. But how do we in the IT Learning business prepare? Where should we be preparing and when should execute our plans?

While there is no one answer for everyone, in fact likely no one answer for even two of us, there are several points we may be able to agree on.

1. Growth IS coming. Some of us may have seen 2010 start strong and some may see it coming in the later quarters but it will come.  Staffing for overall training will grow and I can assure you that staffing to provide for IT Learning will be leading the way.
2. Functionally the IT Learning needs are the greatest. Microsoft has had major releases and Office 2010 is right around the corner lending itself to even more IT learning needs. Other vendors will not sit idle and are ushering in cloud computing, virtualization and other game changers into the overall IT schema. For most of your users, this is all new and will require more from us, the IT Learning community, than ever before.
3. Delivery methods will adapt. Corporations are investing in remote learning more than ever and IT learning topics lend themselves quite nicely to this mode of delivery. More users will have experienced remote learning and resources for creating and delivering content over this mode will need to grow. 
4. IT topics will continue to be complex and with complexity the need for even more skilled trainers is needed to migrate it to the masses. This will come in the form of the end users themselves. Consumers of IT content will create more and more detailed IT learning content centered on their own personal work communities. A high level IT topic on something like “security” (delivered by perhaps a leader in the security field) will quickly be “recast” into content on IT security for pharma companies or IT security for internet companies. Then recast again and again for various functional groups that are in that specific indisutry vertical. This recasting will work its way down the organization until it becomes a very specialized learning module for a specific industry, a specific department and a specific application in that department. In short, the learner will be in greater control of IT learning content than ever before. 
   

 
So, more than ever, we need more of us. More people like us are needed in our organizations looking after content, delivery and overall looking after the needs of the IT learner. As always, I look forward to your continued feedback and feel free to contact me anytime at bob.austin@itlearnblog.com