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Subject:RE: Training - who gets it? How useful? From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:"'McLauchlan, Kevin'" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:08:39 -0400
Interesting questions. As a freelancer with about six regular clients, the
only training that I wouldn't pay for is client-mandated training... in more
than three years, that's never happened!
If I find something that will help me build a skill set in a related area,
and my budget allows, I pay for it on my dime, and I've actually done both
online and in-person.
My clients cross a number of verticals--customer service, telecom, financial
services, IT integration, textiles, and US government. I'd go broke in a
hurry attending conferences and training, but sometimes I can find a good
online or CBT that doesn't break the bank.
I'm much more likely to look for certifications or training in areas
affiliated to techcomm--I'm considering going for CBAP (Certified Business
Analysis Professional), and I'm constantly looking for courses on technical
and social marketing, knowledge management, proposal writing, instructional
design, ITIL, BPM, or information architecture (but none of those are
cheap!). I'm not likely to pay for tools training, usually I can pick it up
through vendor tutorials, forums or plain old mucking around.
FWIW
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:20 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Training - who gets it? How useful?
A remark by Bill in that other thread (may it now rest in peace)
reminded me about a related issue.
In this age of canned webinars and downloadable self-paced
product learning, we still see ads (in Techwr-l advert posts
among other places) for in-person, hands-on-and-lecture training.
How many of y'all make use of such training?
Do companies pay for that sort of thing for employees any more?
(I haven't seen that personally since the tech bust.)
Regardless of the mode of training, for a software tool or a
workflow, if it costs money, and especially if it requires
travel, who is more likely to take it:
- captive corporate employees
- contractors (various flavors of self-employed) ??
If it's job-related - i.e., maybe how to use or get more
out of the HATT you use every day - are you more likely to
undertake such training on company time (whether at your
desk via web or at a hotel conference room somewhere),
or on your own time? And dime?
Also, do many of y'all attend industry-specific events
(not TW stuff, but rather for the industry of the company
that employs you) like trade shows and conferences?
Kevin McLauchlan
Senior Technical Writer
SafeNet, Inc.
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