Is the CLO or CIO responsible for training end users on how to work effectively with IT?

[Gary Slavin]

IT professionals have always been provided with business training to assist them in better understanding the needs of the end user. Who should be responsible for training the end user in effectively working with IT and will this type of training assist in bringing down the walls that have separated IT from the business user?

[Craig Pfister]

I feel it is up to a trainer that has both the knowledge of the IT professional and end user. That is what makes this type of trainer a hot commodity. Many IT professionals do not want to teach or train people and often do a poor job because they feel that task it up to someone else to do. Initially bringing the two together is the job of both the CLO and CIO.

[Gary Slavin]

Good insight, Craig. I agree completely. Do you believe this type of training will help bring down the walls that exist between IT and the end user?

[Martyn Bullard]

Good question Gary. I know here in the UK there are organisations who have a training or L&D dept within IT as well as a central training / L&D dept. However there also organisations who have a centralised approach. My view is that you need to carefully balance the requirement of having techincally savvy L&D specialists, but not at the expense of being able to articulate with the end user. This is important because any learning initiatives that are IT based should still be designed with the business processes in mind.

I have worked for organisations who have had both and would lean on the side of CLO, rather than CIO.

[Gary Slavin]

Martyn,

Thank you for your input and insight. I agree and would also lean toward the CLO. The CLO would, however, have to interface with the CIO and keep them informed.

[Craig Pfister]

I believe it will because we (the organizations) that are hiring professionals with college degrees who should have advanced application skills already, but it is going to require an IT trainer to train the existing staff. It is more cost effective to keep your staffs application skills current rather than waiting until productivity suffers due to inadequate use of the applications. When staff within an organization begin to realize that they do not know how to use say MS Project or MS Access they begin take classes at the community college afterwork or during their lunch hour. With the constant upgrading of applications it is getting more and more difficult staying current on skills we are accountible for maintaining.

Gary Slavin said:

Good insight, Craig. I agree completely. Do you believe this type of training will help bring down the walls that exist between IT and the end user?

[Craig Pfister]

I do. If you look at say, my daughter, who is in 3rd grade. She is already very proficient at using Powerpoint, Word and E-mail. All this because of the enviroment she is in at school. I recently got her a cheap pay-as-you-go phone and within a week she was using every feature in the phone with no instructions or guidance. She can type a text message with her thumb within seconds. The question becomes how do you train an adult to do the same and utilize every feature made available to him or her to increase their productivity? I am not worried about the future because the next generation will have solved all these issues.

Craig Pfister said:

I believe it will because we (the organizations) that are hiring professionals with college degrees who should have advanced application skills already, but it is going to require an IT trainer to train the existing staff. It is more cost effective to keep your staffs application skills current rather than waiting until productivity suffers due to inadequate use of the applications. When staff within an organization begin to realize that they do not know how to use say MS Project or MS Access they begin take classes at the community college afterwork or during their lunch hour. With the constant upgrading of applications it is getting more and more difficult staying current on skills we are accountible for maintaining.

Gary Slavin said:

Good insight, Craig. I agree completely. Do you believe this type of training will help bring down the walls that exist between IT and the end user?