Re: [Off Topic] Technical Training: On-site vs Open Enrollment

["Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com>]

On 20 Oct 2003 at 10:59, Bob Hooker wrote:

> As a tech writer/curriculum developer for a company that develops and
> installs medical billing and scheduling software for large hospitals,
> I am looking for any cost/benefit information comparing on-site
> technical training vs. conducting the same training via regularly
> scheduled (open enrollment) classes at the home office. I've scoured
> the Web and can't find this kind of info, though maybe I don't know
> where to look.

For 10 years now we have conducted training classes in-house on 
our datalogger software & hardware. About 4 or 5 years ago, we 
began taking that training class "on the road". 

In-house we have a training room set up with computers, 
dataloggers, sensors, etc. for 10 students and an instructor. For out 
of house training, we have cases and each case holds 3 setups 
(lap-top, datalogger, sensor simulator, power supplies and a few 
smaller sensors). We have enough cases to accommodate 10 
students as well.

In-house training costs (for 3 days) are $650/student and an 
additional $395 for the software (software purchase is not required). 
The student pays for all travel costs, including lodging, and we 
provide lunch each day (the group ventures out to a local 
restaurant). I am not certain about the cost of customer-site training, 
but I know we get the instructor's travel costs and time covered. I 
think the price advantage for the customer for on-site training kicks 
in at about 6 students.

As others have mentioned, there is an obvious advantage of 
bringing the students to your facility -- most importantly, you have 
their full attention. Also, if a student works regularly with a person in 
your office, the student can meet with that person and establish a 
rapport. We also pride ourselves in our "facility tour" that is 
conducted at the end of the class -- we do virtually all of our design, 
development, and manufacturing in-house, so it's a real bonus for 
us to show off our surface mount operation, machine shop, and 
quality control/testing areas. We do a great deal to ensure quality, 
and students usually walk away with the "warm fuzzies" that their 
equipment is going to perform as expected. 

On the flip side, if you are at your customer's site, the obvious 
disadvantage is the distraction that may occur. However, you can 
also tailor the training to the customer's specific needs (I'm looking 
at this from our perspective, where in an in-house class, you have a 
"mixed bag" of applications). Because we have the luxury of 
dedicating lap-tops to out-of-house training, we can insure that we 
have a known, stable environment for the class so we typically don't 
have to worry about working on other networks. 

OK, well I guess none of this has answered your cost/benefit 
question. This is just an idea of how our classes are designed. I 
think as long as you have quality resources to conduct the classes 
(dedicated equipment, personnel, etc), then either could work 
equally well.

Dana W.

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