Cost-Effective Skills Training: Is On-the-Job Training or CBT Better for Basics?

Hi All,

I want to know which method will be the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide basic technical skills training: on-the-job training or CBT.

Awaiting reply with reasons.

Thanks & Regards,
Diksha

In my opinion, on-the-job training will be cheaper and more effective, provided you assign an active employee from each department as departmental trainers. These trainers will impart training to new hires as well as existing employees. The method of delivery can be group training or one-on-one training.

Cheers,
Enzo
Maldives

By CBT, I presume you mean Computer-Based Training. There is no simple answer to your question. There are many variables to consider.

Some of these are:

- Do you already have in-house expertise for developing CBT training? For OJT training? (CBT training is very expensive to develop.)
- Are your trainees geographically dispersed? (CBT is more cost-effective for dispersed populations as it avoids transporting trainers and trainees.)
- How is CBT to be dispersed? (Dispersing over an existing network is more cost-effective than producing and shipping out CD-ROMs.)
- How many people do you need trained? (Because of the high initial expense of developing CBT, payback period decreases the more times you use it.)
- Do your trainees need to develop difficult hands-on skills or more mental capabilities? (OJT is well-suited to imparting hands-on skills whereas CBT is not as effective.)
- How important is consistency of training? (OJT is more variable because of the inherent variability of trainers.)
- Do you already have competent OJT trainers or will you need to buy in or develop them? (OJT will be more cost-effective if you already have expert resources.)

These are just some of the variables. I am sure there are more.

Vicki Heath

[Human Resources Software and Resources](http://www.businessperform.com)

[Business Perform Website](http://www.businessperform.com)

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. However, could you please advise on which form of training yields a higher ROI: Computer-Based Training (CBT) or On-the-Job Training (OJT)? Kindly explain with a suitable example which method, CBT or OJT, would provide better ROI for imparting basic technical skills training.

Regards,
Diksha