Six key ideas that drive trainnig businesses sustainability
The training landscape in Australia has shifted. Not just a bit and not just slowly. It’s going through a major and disruptive change, turning a publicly funded and institutional model into a publicly sponsored, purchaser model.
At both Federal and State level there has been an inexorable move toward change, in an attempt to get a range of changes pushed through the sector.
The changes haven’t just been about driving a change for change sake, or to meet the needs of one set of stakeholders, but has been about trying to develop a framework that meets the needs of all the various ‘users’ of vocational education and training.
Businesses, enterprises, and organisations, particularly in a global market place, are trying to get more done, for less, in a shorter time frame, with fewer people. Paying for training isn’t something that they really see as their responsibility, or is easily tracked to show its return on investment (ROI).
Individuals want to get to know how to do stuff that will get them a job, but also give them the skills and knowledge for today, tomorrow and some way into the future.
Relevancy in training relates to context & content
Qualifications are losing their attraction; they take too long; they are too expensive; they can’t be done where the students want or need to be; they’re not adapted to the students context.
The paradigm shift that’s happening means that the old notions are off offering places isn’t going to cut the mustard anymore, because now the students get to pick where they go, they get to pick what they want to pay for and they get to look closely to see what’s on offer, compared to a bunch of other training providers. The power has been given tot he consumer, not the supplier.
The old training business models are no longer reliably valid, or even relevant and training providers are going to have to make some fundamental business culture and process changes in order to stay relevant, viable and sustainable as businesses. They are going to have to think about their customers needs, in terms of jobs and skills, not qualifications and units of competency. They are going to have think about the types and tone of conversations that the various ‘industry’ sectors that they service find meaningful and relevant in order to build trust, confidence and develop B2B partnerships.
Aligning work and traning is a really good strategy for success
Training providers are going to have to move away from the warm cosy world of government funding to taking the cold shower of the open commercial market driven world.
This translates into understanding six key drivers
1. Demand vs. Product/Compliance Driven
2. Business Positioning
3. Strategic Alignment
4. Market Engagement
5. Entrepreneurship & Innovation
6. Performance Measurement
1. Demand vs. Product/Compliance Driven:
Training providers will have to stop thinking about their Scope of Registration as stock or inventory, but instead look at the various jobs and employable skills that clients and industry partners need. They will need to look at the needs of the individual clients, the industry sector context and develop pertinent and relevant training solutions that fit those needs, not just churn out the same old stuff.
2. Business Positioning:
Training is a cost impost, both in monetary value and in time on both businesses and individuals. As a business a training provider needs to be recognised as a coherent part of the industry and community that it is servicing, part of the commercial eco-system that it is integrated with. That means being able to recognise and be positioned at the right place, at the right level, in the right price point and with a product mix that it is seen as a natural part of its market. It means that you know if you’re in the B2B or B2C business.
3. Strategic Alignment:
Is about the lining up of your goals, business culture, those of your clients and stakeholders with your business strategic goals, business processes, products/services and making sure that you’re in the right place in your business eco-system.
4. Market Engagement:
Means that you’re not just in-conversation with your market, in all its various forms and segments, but your under their skin, thinking like they think, seeing what they see, talking like they talk, so that you are as much a part of the market as you are providing products and services to that market. It also means that you know what your market value is, what it looks like and how, when, where & why it is communicated and engaged with. In the training market it’s also valuable to know that individuals are probably your tier 1 customers and employers are your tier 2 customers. Both are an important part of your customer base.
5. Entrepreneurship & Innovation:
Like most things, except maybe raw talent, entrepreneurship and innovation are processes that can and should be learned by business owners and operators. You should know how to pitch to anyone about your business, should be able to do a back-of-the-envelope ROI when an oppotunity arises, know exactly what your value proposition is and be able to develop your business by working smarter.
6. Performance Measurement:
That old adage about not being able to manage what you can’t measure is real. In business you need to be able to do for yourself what you do for your students; inform, collaborate, benchmark, goal set & measure. In the end your business needs to be able to meet key criteria; to be sustainable and profitable.
Things are in a state of continuous flux and in the training business you need to be able to manage and move to adapt and change to the needs of your clients.
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Hi admin, I’m also interested in this. (Take a look at the latest post on my site for details.) This was a really interesting read, you have definitely given me some food for thought!
Andrew J. Gephart
November 29, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I am about to start a blog. Along with many other hopeful’s, I hope to eventually make money off it. I noticed a lot of sites do not allow you to make money of google ad sense and things like that. What are some sites I can start my blog on that will allow this since it seems to be the most profitable way to make money off a blog?.
Chi Kopke
December 8, 2011 at 3:15 am
If you have researched your value proposition and the product/service that you will be using to generate income from, either through affiliate marketing or direct sales then you really should start with your own blog account. That is securing your own URL and then installing your own managed version of your favourite blogging tool. How will you know which is your favourite that speaks to your target market? Read blogs that would be blogging to the same target market and look at their platforms. Learn from that process and be mindful that you really don’t want to slavishly emulate those other blogs, but take the time to look at what they are doing, rather than just how they are doing it. The real secret lies not in the appearance but is instead in the substance (could be content, copy, business/transaction model, etc.)
I suppose the thing is to ensure that the whole package matches up; URL; content; culture; commercial model; brand/image; message frequency; value proposition.
It’s also really important to put measurement tools to ensure that the various posts, offers and services that you are going to use can be measured for their effectiveness.
Building a business through blogging really means understanding where you are in the business blogging eco-system. That requires some up front research, strategic thinking and planning and having systems and process in place to be able to measure and adjust the message to suit your clients/customers, through their interactions with you. That’s where a blog has the edge over a lot of other commercial models; through the ability to build a direct conversation with the consumer.
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December 8, 2011 at 2:54 pm
There’s an interesting webpage that has just been deleted, but thanks to the miracle of hibernation, it’s still open in Firefox. The problem is, when I save it, it seems to attempt to retrieve the page from its source on the internet, which no longer exists. Is there any way I can configure Firefox to save the locally-held files instead?.
Britta Desanto
December 9, 2011 at 1:44 am
My understanding is that there is an attempt to archive the web. By whom and where I am not sure. You can copy and paste relevant info from a webpage, if that’s an option you wish to consider, but be mindful of copyright. Some older websites will have ‘re-directs’ in them, so that the ‘old’ URL will point to the new website. Either way, if the info you want is on a website and you want to reference the info, then you should consider retaining it locally, using appropriate tools. Adobe Acrobat will do that for you, as well as doing the copy and paste method that I described earlier.
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