Several years ago the majority of our students were the techies, getting additional training. Providing technology training to these two groups of students presents a significant challenge, Masters said. Handling both groups in the same setting is not easy. In a particular class you may have a group of technical professionals wanting to get trained on the Windows 2000 operating system alongside individual career changers who are new to the technical field. The two groups represent two training perspectives, so we try to separate these groups into separate classes when possible.
Distance learning is a more recent type of training delivery that is growing exponentially.
While it is becoming increasingly popular within education as well as within commercial industry, it is not the answer to all training needs, Masters said. If a company has a short time line to accomplish skills training, you still need the classroom, instructor-led experience, she said. Also, some companies prefer to invest the time and money to allow employees to train on company time during regular work hours, instead of trying to fit their training into off hours at home. Personal touch Another reason to use classroom instructor-led training is to gain expertise in a subject area. Despite the popularity of computer-skills training, the No. 1 training subject for local companies is related to interpersonal communication, said Borowiec.