7 Trends Driving the Future of Corporate Training Services in Community Colleges

The good news is the corporate training market is not stagnant. It’s a dynamic, ever evolving market that requires professionals and suppliers to stay abreast of innovation and best practices to remain competitive. And there are a lot of people competing for a share of the wallet of corporate training organizations. In Doug Harward’s recent article about the ten predictions for 2011, he stated that there is a convergence of educational institutions going after corporate spending to supplement their revenues. I agree with Doug on his assertion and have identified what I think are the top trends in corporate training that drive how community colleges need to change to compete for that business. The challenge for the colleges will be how they step up to meet these drivers - and will they be able to compete? I believe they have the talent and resources, but are their business models right?

Here are my 7 trends driving community college corporate training organizations.

1.   Spending for training is rising for variable activity – not for fixed resources.

Most corporate training organizations will spend more in 2011 than the past couple of years. During that time, they reduced fixed resources and staff while minimizing the variable activity associated with development and delivery of training. Most of the new spend will be on variable costs; courses, contract labor, etc. Community colleges are well positioned for this as they are experts in creating custom content and have large portfolios of courses to leverage delivery. And let’s not forget the vast number of instructors available in their talent pool.  Corporate training at community colleges is cost effective, provides high value and focuses on student success.  Additionally they are located in the backyard of most businesses and can provide a credential for training delivered.   This value proposition needs to be communicated to business and industry.

2.    Technologies for training are changing how people learn.

Companies are becoming much more focused on providing employees and customers greater access to content in smaller increments of information. Online training, as well as online access to content, requires the use of technologies in a different way. Traditional LMS/LCMS’s have become commoditized. The new age of access is through learning portals, where the LMS is a plug-in to the portal. Community colleges have a history of managing large portfolios of content and need to leverage this capability into a suite of services which help manage the learning portals for their clients. The new world of learning portals is not just about a technology, but more about the service associated with the technology.  This new service will provide just in-time training, training tailored to your day on the job and the current events of your industry.  Colleges could provide this service at a very competitive price.

Advanced automation technology is increasing demand for skills and craft training. Manufacturing continues to leverage new technologies to remain cost competitive in this global market.  Automation technologies are not new to manufacturing companies, but the training associated with the creation of these technologies and the support and use of the tools continue to evolve. Community colleges have been leaders in managing skills training in this area and should continue to win the lion’s share of this market.  Community colleges need to be more aggressive at creating customized solutions for online technical training that meet these needs.  Companies are running very lean and solutions need to be packaged in short, consumable sessions over extended periods of time.  

3.    The supply chain for training services is changing.

It’s a fact that training companies buy from other training companies. Large comprehensive outsourcing companies contract with smaller training suppliers to supplement their needs. Partnerships between suppliers to integrate solutions are becoming commonplace. Community colleges must recognize that all training companies are not their competitors. They should and can be their partners. Community college corporate training functions are perfectly positioned to drive strategic alliances with other training companies to deliver these training services. 

4.   Companies spend more on customer training than on employee training.

Over the past 20 years colleges have focused on employee training for their clients.  The reality is that companies spend more to train their customers than they do their employees. Customer training has been overlooked by many colleges.  As community colleges look to expand their market share they must view this as a great new potential for growing their business. The biggest factor colleges must recognize is that solutions for this market are custom – not off the shelf. This is not about leveraging existing courseware. It’s about custom creation of content. We must learn to up the ante in how we create custom content solutions to compete.

5.   Corporate training executives are focusing more on content management.

The role of the training executive has traditionally been ‘event’ focused - courses are an event. The current training executive is now more focused on how to effectively manage content. They are now focused on providing relevant, just in-time information for the best value.  Community colleges must recognize this shift and become more content oriented. We must look for innovative solutions that leverage the content we create and manage. And remember that not all content has to be monetized through courses. The internet has completely changed our view of how to get relevant information. And we must change with the market.

6.   Lean is the new norm.

This economy has forced companies to be lean to stay competitive. Although community colleges view themselves as low cost providers, the reality is many are not lean. Lean is about high quality with little waste. It’s about high productivity delivering high value. Most community colleges are too focused on managing training programs and events and not on the overall process. My experience is that very few run a lean process operation. We must use the tools we have been teaching to our clients.  Being a low cost provider does not have to mean being a low quality provider. We have to raise the bar on quality of services.

7.    Government grants for companies to fund programs are reducing.

The availability of state and federal government grants to fund corporate training programs are reducing. As the federal deficit grows, politicians are actively looking for ways to reduce spend – and community colleges will not be immune to the cuts. The fact is community colleges have vastly depended on these grants for their corporate training survival.  And so have companies – there are businesses focused solely on helping companies leverage these grants.  This is just another strong case for why community colleges must step up the challenge of being competitive.

Although it’s evident that I believe the corporate training functions within community colleges have an uphill road ahead of them, I fundamentally believe they are still one of the best kept secrets among corporate training executives. Of course I know that everyone has heard of community colleges – duh. But I’ve learned in talking with corporate training leaders that they really don’t know that many community colleges actually have dedicated services geared to the B2B client. 

 

Source : By Paul Seidel