I stumbled on the ASTD State of The Industry Report 2011 yesterday. The title proudly claims “Increased Commitment to Workplace Learning” and that is indeed heartening to see. Not just because it means constant business for us but also because it means the top bosses recognize the importance of workplace learning more that they did a couple of decades back. It was commonplace to find training budgets be the first ones to slashed when downturn hits. Some highlights from the report:
– The average direct expenditure per employee increased from $1,081 ($1,098 inflation adjusted) in 2009 to $1,228 in 2010.
– The leading content area for the consolidated group is management and supervisory learning. Manager and supervisory content also registered the greatest percentage increase change, going from 10.4 percent in 2009 to 12.8 percent of the content delivered in 2010.
– Instructor-led classroom delivery continues to be the most widely used delivery method. About 70 percent (a 3 percent increase from 2009) of all training is delivered in the classroom-both online and live-and 60 percent of that is delivered by live instruction.
– In 2010, technology-based delivery declined overall for the consolidated group, from 36.3 percent in 2009 to 29.1 percent in 2010.The 2010 decline in the total amount of content delivered via technology by organizations in the consolidated group is atypical of previous years’ results and is a trend that we do not expect to continue over time.
– ASTD’s research demonstrates that leading-edge L&D departments incorporate more technology components and processes than their lesser performing counterparts.
