ASTD'S 2004 State of the Industry Report: Where's the Data on OJT and Why Does It Matter?

TeamOJT Tip of the Month for February, 2005

Once again, ASTD's State of the Industry Report does not include expenditures or hours spent for on-the-job training (OJT). Why not?

Research shows that approximately 90 percent of an employee's workplace skills and knowledge are learned through OJT. This fact is very well documented. Yet the State of the Industry Report does not include OJT. In fact, structured OJT is not even mentioned in the Report under "formal learning." According to the Report, it excludes from formal learning anything "embedded in work activities." Since this is where most learning occurs, why is it excluded? Why is the entire Report focused on the10 percent of the skills and knowledge learned via other methods (all training methods other than OJT)? Can ASTD really be that far off track? Are the researchers even aware of OJT?

Ronald Jacobs and Michael Jones, in their book, Structured On-the-Job Training, cite research showing that U.S. employers spend between three and six times more for on-the-job training than for all other training combined (classroom, computer-based, etc.) - even if there is no designated budget item for OJT; they also say that up to one-third of an employee's first-year salary is devoted to OJT costs. Why is ASTD reporting only the money that is spent for other methods, and not OJT? And since so much more money is being spent on OJT, most of which is unplanned or informal, shouldn't ASTD be promoting structured OJT in order to help companies get more for their money? Or are they too blinded by flash, pizzazz, and gee-whiz technologies? Or maybe another reason OJT is ignored is that recipients of OJT are not typically the folks who pay to attend training conferences or subscribe to training magazines.

Just how much corporate money is being spent of OJT? According to Anthony Carnevale and R.A. Fry's 2001 paper, "The Economic and Demographic Roots of Education and Training" (commissioned by the Center for Workforce Success of the Manufacturing Institute-the educational and research affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers-and National Center on Education and the Economy), employers will need to spend $96 billion on training in 2005 just to maintain their current training commitments to their most highly educated employees. They say that, assuming employers wish to expand the number of employees being trained to make up for current training shortcomings, the employer totals could be as high as $175 billion. If the 90 percent figure is correct, the amount spent (but not budgeted) for OJT could be astronomical. Since structured OJT has been shown to decrease training time by up to 80 percent, think of the potential savings, not to mention fewer quality errors, increased safety, and higher productivity. Maybe the U.S. wouldn't have to outsource so many of our jobs overseas!

What are the implications of all this? Why is it important that ASTD accurately represent the state of the industry and include the most frequently used method of training, and the most costly? And why does it matter that ASTD is not paying more attention to structured OJT? Quite simply, most training professionals learn how to do their jobs from training association conferences, workshops, and publications. Whatever organizations like ASTD "sell," training professionals buy.

Most ASTD conference attendees will tell you that, "I am here to find out how to do my job." Here is what Elliott Masie, internationally-recognized training expert, said about training conferences in his January 6, 2005 e-newsletter, "Many events feel more like Junior High School, with a couple of "assembly programs" followed by a flurry of classes, with low interaction and the absence of a clear instructional design. And, in many events the commercial elements overwhelm the learning opportunities." No wonder that training departments everywhere are struggling to stay alive and prove their worth.

And as for publications, ASTD took a giant step away from focusing on training for front line workers (the major users of OJT) in January 2000 when it abruptly eliminated the Technical and Skills Training magazine and annual Technical and Skills Training conference in an effort to "force" trainers into technology-based learning. (This was actually stated in one of their publications as the reason for the change.) In place of the magazine, there is now an e-zine that deals exclusively with e-learning endeavors, not technical training per se. The vast majority of front line technical employees do not even have computers at their workspaces.

Unfortunately, most training professionals find themselves in the training department, not because they were schooled and credentialed in the field of adult education or training, but because they were transferred there from some other department or just wanted a career change. Training is one of the few fields where you need no special background to qualify for the job. Many trainers are there because they were good at their previous job and are therefore expected to be good at training others in the same job. But they normally end up training in subjects they know nothing about. Then there are those who have degrees, even advanced degrees, in some form of instructional design, and who have jobs designing and developing training for employees in jobs about which they know nothing.

The American workforce is the big loser here. In state and national surveys, employers say they continue to face shortages of skilled workers despite the recent recession. Even more troubling, employers say that limited access to a skilled workforce is by far the largest barrier to expansion over the next several years. This lack of skilled workers is found not only in manufacturing companies, but all industries. What workers worldwide need are skills that enable them to perform their everyday work tasks. This message is not getting through to training industry folks in leadership positions, and it is up to organizations like ASTD to accurately inform and lead the profession.

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