Economy forces eLearning programs to forefront

Training and Development, Will recession mean lower eLearning budgets?

A preliminary “State of the Industry” report from Training Magazine and Bersin & Associates breaks down some of the expected and unexpected trends of 2008. With a waning economy, cost cutting is occurring within Training  and Development throughout all organization types and sizes, including a certain amount of reduction in staff. As expected, need-to-have L&D; initiatives, particularly mandatory/compliance and job-specific training programs, saw growth, while other areas shrank, most notably in the area of IT and executive development.

None of this should be too surprising. What I find interesting, though, is the reduction in spending on elearning. After several years of growth, and the continued promise of cost reduction, e-learning took a noticeable hit this year. Initial indications are that the cost to produce, deploy and manage online learning has not yet lived up to the cost-cutting dream.

Expect more and a further analysis upon the official release of Training Magazine’s 2008 Industry Report.