Training Magazine's Industry Report

According to Training Magazine’s recent Training Industry Report, 52.8 BILLION dollars were spent on workforce training last year.  Yowsa!

Eight hundred and one respondents were polled on everything from the size of their training budget (in dollars) to what they spent their money on, to how much money was allotted to each individual learner.

The results:

Online learning tools and systems far surpassed any other training expenditures.  On average, organizations spent slight over $500,000 on tools and technology. The next most popular expenditures were authoring tools and systems and learning management systems (all the same category as above, if you ask us – it appears that organizations are investing in technology to make themselves more efficient in the design and delivery of learning programs). 

In terms of budgets, manufacturing organizations have the largest budgets followed closely by government and military organizations.  Retail and wholesale organizations have the most paltry budgets. 

The amount of money invested in an individual’s learning was determined to be $1,041 – up slightly from last year when it was $1,036. And, on average, workplace learners receive 40 hours of training per year. The topic that is expected to receive the most funding in 2011? Management and supervisory training.