Classroom training or on-line training?

As you may or may not know, Gander Service Management provides on-line training in many different subjects:

• ITIL (Foundation through to Expert)
• COBIT Foundation
• DevOps Foundation
• Certified Agile Service Manager
• OBASHI
• Business Relationship Management

These are all excellent courses (of course) but you can also get classroom training for most, if not all, in New Zealand.

So which should you choose?  I'll share my personal thoughts and would be grateful for your feedback to let me know if I have missed anything or you feel I am wrong. 

Classroom Training

This is excellent for 

• those working for organisations where several people need to be trained in the same subject, 
• training needs to be undertaken within a short time-frame or for
• those who learn best by being able to discuss subjects with others.

  

If your company decides that they want half a dozen team members trained up, for example in DevOps Foundation, then a classroom training session may be a better solution. If the whole department needs training in the subject, maybe you should engage a training organisation to come on site to perform training  tailored to your organisation.

However, classroom training does cost more to deliver, due to trainer costs, resources, classrooms, lunches, etc. Therefore the cost of classroom training is higher than on-line training.

On-line training

This is ideal for those

• who wish to invest in their own personal development, 
• organisations with a small training budget, 
• organisations away from the larger training centres or where training can be spread over several weeks.  On-line training is generally spread over 30 to 60 days for Foundation level courses, or 90 to 150 days for practitioner level courses.  There are also options to have training packages spread over a year, for example ITIL Expert, where you can take all intermediate training courses and exams for a fraction of the cost of individual courses. (More on that coming soon!)

On-line training also allows you to cover the same areas time and time again until you are comfortable that you understand it, rather than moving at the same pace as the rest of the class.

If you have a limited budget, an on-line course may be a quarter of the cost of a classroom based course due to reduced overheads.  This would allow several of your team to attend a course for the same price as one classroom course.

Of course, there is no wrong or right answer, it has to fit you.  If you learn better in a group, on-line training will not suit you. However, if you are happy learning on your own, you can achieve more training in a year for a fraction of the cost of classroom training.

Find out more about on-line training and costs at www.gander.co.nz/training