Shawnee Love   •  
November 16, 2011

In house training & development often gets a short shrift.  In a world that values money, and the costlier the course “the better it must be”, what employee wants to put on her resume that she learned all she knows on the job.  It is an unfortunate perception, because I know that there are a variety of in house training and development activities that are particularly effective at transferring knowledge back into work.  Even better from the company’s perspective, in house training can also be:

• practical,
• cost effective, and
• simple to implement.

Consider mentoring, job shadowing, roundtables, and libraries.  What these T&D activities have in common is that they are participant-directed and possible in almost every organization that has leaders, managers, and/or subject matter experts. Rarely do they cost much beyond the time and effort inherent in learning.

Perhaps the lack of expense is why many organizations undervalue the learning opportunities they have in-house, but that doesn’t mean you have to.