Public courses versus in-house training
How do you decide whether a public course or an in-house course is best? There are a number of factors to think about, and in this article we guide you through some of these, whether you are researching training for yourself, or for your staff.
Public training courses exist in a bewildering array of topics. Want to learn to do origami? There’s a course for you. Want to understand international finance? There’s a course for you.
Attending a public course ensures that you meet other like-minded people who want to learn the same topic. The ability to interact with people from different backgrounds can be one of the great advantages of attending a public course. On the other hand, you cannot tell in advance what each attendee’s starting point is, and you may find yourself learning alongside people with a very different level of existing knowledge, meaning you might be either struggling to keep up, or bored whilst they re-visit the basics that you already know.
A public course can be cost-effective when you have only a small number of people to be trained, as you simply pay a price per delegate. Courses are run in all sorts of locations, so the chances of finding one near you, and on a date to suit you, is high. The material will be of a consistent standard, but the tutors will be limited in the extent to which they can tailor the course to your own needs, so you may find time being spent on a topic that is irrelevant to you, or your organisation.
Some topics lend themselves especially well to a public course, particularly if the material is universal and does not vary in different organisations. One of the key advantages of an in-house course is that the course content can be tailored to your own organisation’s needs. If you are fortunate enough to have in-house trainers on your payroll, then one of their responsibilities will be to develop bespoke course material.
Where you are using an outside company to deliver your training, make sure you ask your training provider to tailor the course for your needs. Beware of those providers who simply add your logo to their standard material and claim to have customised it. Providers should be able to build in specific details of your own internal processes, or design exercises that use real case studies from within your own organisation.
An in-house course is a great alternative to public training where you have several people to be trained as you can usually get economies of scale from your provider. It tends not to be cost-effective for very small numbers, but always ask your training provider for their best pricing options, as there can be ways of paying per delegate that make the price more attractive.
Whilst an in-house course lacks the variety of delegates that you can get on a public programme, it is also true that when a group of your staff are trained together, they have a rare opportunity to interact, exchange views and ideas and build relationships outside the normal working environment. This sharing of information between delegates can often be just as important as any new information learnt on the programme. A good tutor will facilitate and encourage this interaction, and help your delegates to get the best from themselves and from one another.
In summary, public courses and in-house courses both have their advantages and drawbacks. Make sure that you consider your key requirements to make the best decision: