The Importance of IT Training & Hiring a Trainer
By: Lorrie Delk Walker
Computer skills and IT training is more important today than at any time previously in the information technology industry.
Companies across the nation are being forced to do more with their existing IT investment while having less staff. These days, it often seems like there are never enough hours in the day to allow employees to receive IT training and still get the normal day-to-day tasks completed.
But those who value the long-term success of their businesses make time for on-going IT training to constantly improve operating efficiencies. Knowledge transfer occurs when learning from computer subject matter experts that have already pioneered complex product integrations or implementations.
“Our clients request subject matter experts so that they can learn from professionals who will help them avoid costly errors,” says Duane French, president of Alliance Micro Solutions. AMS is a national IT service distributor based in Irvine, Calif. that provides its channel partners with subject matter expert consultants and trainers for more than 3,500 computer products.
“If you’re going to take time off from work to learn a specific product, no one has time or money to go back and redo the training if it isn’t right the first time,” French says. “We provide our clients with known and proven computer experts.”
It is important to French that the instructors know and can share real world product implementation tips, tricks and skills that they have learned in the field and be able to teach these valuable skills to all student audiences regardless of their experience or job description. He recommends that companies look for those qualities whenever they take time away from their day-to-day activities to learn.
AMS trainers hold multiple original equipment manufacturer certifications, many product certifications and also have advanced degrees, he says. Examples of products that currently have high demand in the IT trainer channel include Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Cisco systems products.
Types of IT Training Options
Some companies send employees to IT training campuses or product-specific seminars for IT training.
Companies such as AMS offer an option where they send trainers on-site to provide custom product training, rather than having a company’s employee’s travel elsewhere for IT training. When a trainer is brought on-site, the instruction tends to be very customizable and specific to the company’s IT environment.
“It’s appealing because students end up learning just what they need to know for their IT environment,” French says, adding that this option is a popular and growing segment of his company’s business.
Even though custom IT training tailored to a company’s IT environment often costs more per day than a public, off-the-shelf IT training class, clients that insist on custom, on-site IT training save more money overall, he says. Whenever a student learns at a public product training class, the student spends more time away from the office learning some topics that are irrelevant to his/her work environment because in a public setting, all of the course materials must be taught to satisfy the OEM’s requirements.
“Students learning on-site in a custom class contrarily benefit from learning only relevant information, they do so in less time, and that saves employers more than any incremental daily cost difference associated with purchasing this higher-valued custom IT training class,” French says.
Another IT training option growing in popularity is online instruction.
“Many of the classes we teach on-site for our channel partners we now also teach online, or in a virtual format,” French says.
Our online IT training services have traditionally helped our customers offer more flexible training schedules while maintaining the same high quality service our customers require from us.
“We’ve literally taught classes in the middle of the night to accommodate students from countries across the globe,” French says.
The IT training is live and the users log into a web server where the instructor is a participant in the environment. The instructor lectures and demonstrates the hands-on product labs that students are accustomed to completing in class. Students can ask questions in real-time as the instructor goes through the course and labs for the course are available to students to practice after the online class.
A third IT training option is self-study learning. People can purchase books and videos to walk themselves through learning a product or skill on their own time and at their own pace. This is the least expensive option. However the latest industry tricks and tips are lost using this learning method, French says.
Online vs. On-Site IT Training
The online IT training venue continues to grow in popularity each year, French says, but “the most popular IT training venue for us right now is on-site custom training.”
However, he estimates that the company’s online IT training class volumes will most likely eclipse on-site training class volumes within the next two to three years.
Tips for Hiring a Trainer
It’s a good idea to find trainers who are pre-qualified and rated with a quality rating based on past teaching engagements, French says, adding that AMS’s partners expect to review individual trainer evaluations prior to engagement of training to ensure high performance.
AMS provides proven subject matter experts the first time.
“Our partners gain immediate access to the computer industry’s best and brightest who have already done what you need done yesterday while avoiding costly IT mistakes,” French says.
To learn more go to: http://www.alliance-micro.com/
