With cutbacks occurring it is becoming more and more difficult for many local authorities to find resources to train the required number of staff on their current gis systems. Some local authorities may have also had to cut back on planned upgrades and new implementations of gis systems as well as training for existing systems. With the current climate of continuous budget cutting it is important to ensure that the most is made of what limited financial resources are available. In this way it is possible to ensure staff are properly trained and understand the many benefits gis systems provide within the public sector.
One way to reduce training expenditure is to carry out all training in house rather than sending staff to an external training centre. This way travel costs and hotel bills do not impact on the training budget. For some authorities this may not be feasible if only one or two members of staff are involved and if there is not sufficient facilities in house for training purposes. For instance if there is no dedicated rooms or trained staff for the purpose of gis training.
Training just one individual on an external course, with the intention of that person training everybody else, is also a way of keeping costs to a minimum. However, if the person who has attended the training course has not absorbed all the necessary information, during what is often a very intensive experience, then this could lead to a situation where the gis system is wrongly perceived by other members of the department to be difficult to understand and master.
Whatever course of action is taken to minimise the cost of training the end result could sometimes lead to more cost . For example when the significant investment of a gis system is under utilised or just not used at all because of a lack of understanding of the gis system functionality. This could also happen when a trained member of staff moves on and before leaving is assigned the task of training someone in how to use the gis system. On some occasions this training is given over a couple of hours or less and can leave the recipient feeling overwhelmed and confused. Alternatively the training may only cover a specific task leaving the recipient unable to engage in other general gis tasks because of lack of understanding of basic gis capabilities.
Whilst larger authorities can usually rely on a dedicated gis team to handle all their training and support requirements many of the smaller authorities have insufficient funds or requirements for dedicated staff. In the circumstances the need for using external training has to be included in the training budgets. This gis budget is often part of an overall training pot and may be lost to other training programs that are deemed to be of a higher priority.
However, many organisations within the public sector have invested significant sums in gis systems. The need to ensure that these systems are fully utilised to ensure maximum benefit is not going to change whatever the financial climate. That is why appropriate training must be seen as an important element within the overall gis budgeting process.
Training just one individual on an external course, with the intention of that person training everybody else, is also a way of keeping costs to a minimum. However, if the person who has attended the training course has not absorbed all the necessary information, during what is often a very intensive experience, then this could lead to a situation where the gis system is wrongly perceived by other members of the department to be difficult to understand and master.
Whatever course of action is taken to minimise the cost of training the end result could sometimes lead to more cost . For example when the significant investment of a gis system is under utilised or just not used at all because of a lack of understanding of the gis system functionality. This could also happen when a trained member of staff moves on and before leaving is assigned the task of training someone in how to use the gis system. On some occasions this training is given over a couple of hours or less and can leave the recipient feeling overwhelmed and confused. Alternatively the training may only cover a specific task leaving the recipient unable to engage in other general gis tasks because of lack of understanding of basic gis capabilities.
Whilst larger authorities can usually rely on a dedicated gis team to handle all their training and support requirements many of the smaller authorities have insufficient funds or requirements for dedicated staff. In the circumstances the need for using external training has to be included in the training budgets. This gis budget is often part of an overall training pot and may be lost to other training programs that are deemed to be of a higher priority.
However, many organisations within the public sector have invested significant sums in gis systems. The need to ensure that these systems are fully utilised to ensure maximum benefit is not going to change whatever the financial climate. That is why appropriate training must be seen as an important element within the overall gis budgeting process.
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