Office Depot has an in-house university in which IT staff receive four courses in management training. Lucent has created its own management training course for its companywide IT services organization. Only about 25 of Lucent's 5,000 IT staffers will be chosen for the Leadership Development Program, Vinnicombe says. In general, the advanced management courses offered by Best Places are exclusive, with entrants needing to have demonstrated an interest in and aptitude for IT management. However, the Best Places also offer tuition reimbursement programs to most or all employees.
Most training still takes place in a classroom setting.
The verdict is still out on intranets as training tools. Most Best Places use intranets to help staff collaborate on projects and to share knowledge bases but haven't done much training via intranets. Good instructors can see who might require more help and attention. In addition, classroom settings tend to keep participants focused on the training, whereas a self-directed course might get short shrift if it had to be squeezed into the workday. CIOs and IT staff also say the classroom format offers an invaluable chance to get to know colleagues, particularly in large, international organizations.