RE: Various Topics

["Chris Wolcott" <CWolcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Why should IBM give away hardware to a school when no one is available
to teach anyone how to use it?  Even Micro$oft and Sun don't supply
schools with instructors.  (Not that I've heard of, anyway.)  If I had a
decent sized business I'd jump at the chance to teach local people about
to enter the job market how to program in the environments I needed.
I'm sure the business can take a tax write-off for the employee's time,
or do as others do and encourage them to teach evening classes after
work.  Even when I was 1/3 of the MIS department we were allowed to take
work time at the local Boys/Girls club to teach computers.  (PCs in that
case.) 

While Training seems to always be the first neck on the block, the
correct training is always worth it.  Does it really make sense to save
$2,500 on training and then waste $5000+ while someone spends a month
trying to figure something out, or plays ping-pong with the QA
department trying to fix errors they created because they don't know
what they're doing, or wastes the investment in new
hardware/software/language features because they don't know how to take
advantage of them?  

In my experience Computer Based Training (CBT) is a waste.  It is
written to the least common denominator and you usually have no way to
get help on any aspects that you still don't understand.  Send a few
folks to various training opportunities and let them be the 'Guru' for
that topic.  Have 'Lunch & Learn' sessions where the experienced folks
pass that on to the newer ones.  If you treat your folks right you don't
need a contract to make them 'indentured servants'.  If your turn-over
rate is high or you have a mass exodus after training then you need to
look at your corporate culture, not slavery.

-----Original Message-----

message: 7
date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:38:52 -0500 (EST)
from: Don <dr2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Future of RPG


I don't get it...why is it that local business people should be being
asked to foot the bill for doing IBM's marketing???

Uh, does Sun, Microsoft, HP........etc.....etc.... also ask local people
to foot the bill or do they just drop the boxes in?  But then, they've
got
alot more demand for thier systems...gee...go figure why...

No, they're not dead, but they definately are dying...it's going to be a
slow death, but there is no question that they are dying.

Don in DC