How do I upskill when my training budget has been cut?

Citation

Spellman, R. (2011), "How do I upskill when my training budget has been cut?", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 10 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2011.37210daa.005

How do I upskill when my training budget has been cut?

Article Type: Q&A From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 10, Issue 4

Leading industry experts answer your strategic questions

First, rest assured that you’re not alone. A recent poll of Chartered Management Institute (CMI) members showed that 43 percent of them are expecting cuts in their training budgets in 2011, affecting both them and their teams (CMI, 2010). This is obviously a real challenge at a time when staff morale and engagement are already low. When surveyed, 80 percent of our managers within larger firms agreed that morale was worse now than it was six months ago, with managers from SMEs close behind on 58 percent – and not being able to invest in training will not help these figures.

It’s also a particular challenge as, in terms of personal development, now is a more important time than ever to be building your skills portfolio and potentially gaining professional qualifications. With high unemployment figures in the UK and further job cuts anticipated in the public sector, showing that you have embraced continuous professional development may well help you stand out from the crowd.

Low-cost development options

So, with limited or no budget, what are the options? As the only chartered professional body in the UK dedicated to promoting the highest standards of management and leadership excellence, we believe that training is vital to keeping your business and the UK economy on track – simply stopping, even temporarily, is not an option. Indeed, half of managers within large organizations (51 percent) already think skills shortages will have a damaging impact upon their staff this year, as well as 31 percent of those within SMEs – clearly showing the risk of making too drastic cut-backs.

Depending on the scale of your budget, and the scale of the cuts, there are three approaches you could try to continue to get best value and invest in personal development:

1. 1.

   Validation and accreditation. Rather than investing in expensive external courses, why not look at getting your internal training formally recognized? This would ensure it reaches an agreed quality standard and potentially counts towards wider qualifications. CMI and other organizations offer a range of ways to do this – whether it’s through validating in-house training to a professionally benchmarked standard, or mapping your training across to certificate and diploma level. This model in particular can deliver long-term savings, by reducing the need for external trainers.

2. 2.

   Go online. There is a wealth of advice and information available online, which can provide background and training on many issues you or your team may face. Whether briefing documents, case studies, podcasts, or video tutorials, there are some great tools out there that will enable you to grow your skills on little or no budget. For example, the CMI has an online ManagementDirect service that has a range of resources, information and guidance.

3. 3.

   Use the wisdom of others. There are more than 250,000 management titles now available within the UK – that’s a lot of knowledge. Making sure that you and your teams have the right reading list – either in hard copy or online – can also be a low-cost way of continuing to upskill.

Finally, don’t forget the importance of evaluation and return on investment. With training budgets still likely to be under pressure as the economy slowly recovers, the more you can do to prove how effective you have been with your 2011 budget, the better chance you have of preserving, or even increasing, it in 2012.

Ruth Spellman OBEChartered Management Institute.

About the author

Ruth Spellman OBE is Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute, where she leads the drive to encourage greater focus on the high level skills needed to build UK competitiveness and productivity. Prior to joining the Institute in June 2008, Spellman served as the first female chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). She also spent seven years as chief executive of Investors in People UK and has worked as a HR director. In 2007 Spellman was awarded an OBE for services to Workplace Learning. She was also recently voted 14th out of the 100 most influential HR individuals in the UK. Ruth Spellman can be contacted at: enquiries@managers.org.uk