Organisations embrace online training

Online training expert, HowToMoodle, says that online training is increasing in popularity as organisations seek to make budgets work more efficiently during the current economic conditions.

Ray Lawrence, director of the company, says, "Our experience shows that many corporate, charity and education clients are directing more of their training budgets to online options and away from traditional training."

He adds, "Clients cite flexibility gains and cost effectiveness as the main reasons for the switch."

HowToMoodle specialises in training and consultancy for open source course management system Moodle. Their experience of the training market is reflected in that of market research reports which state that businesses are maintaining spending on training, seeing it as essential to their businesses.

A recent report by the Institute of Directors suggested that companies are using training to help boost staff morale, increase productivity and to prepare for the economic upturn. Nearly 90 per cent of those interviewed said they would maintain investment in training over the next six months.

HowToMoodle is experiencing more enquiries for consultancy and bespoke development than previously, with organisations proactively seeking ways to cut spending on travel and out-of-office costs associated with face-to-face training whilst seeking ways to improve training for employees and employers.

Ray adds, "Many organisations are finding that releasing staff for traditional face-to-face training courses is proving too disruptive to the business. Online courses allow trainers to expand the range of courses on offer and to respond to new training demands more quickly. Put simply, changing to online training for some or all courses allows organisations to maintain their current spend but to get far more for their money.

"Using open source software such as Moodle to facilitate online training is particularly attractive due to the absence of licensing costs. In addition, the software is continually updated and refreshed thanks to its active and sizeable user community of 25 million. Open source software is becoming increasingly popular, indeed researchers Gartner project that by 2012, 90 per cent of the world’s companies will be using it."

HowToMoodle recently opened a second office in London to cater for demand from Southern England and Europe, supplementing its office in Telford, Shropshire. The company is currently recruiting additional staff to meet growing demand. For more information about training, consultancy or job opportunities with HowToMoodle, visit www.howtomoodle.com