Most organizations have a reactive business model but every organization has needs that can be anticipated proactively. So why don’t more organizations have a curriculum to meet basic business needs?

It takes resources to build a curriculum body and maintain it. Where do the materials reside? Who are the instructors? How often is something offered? Are notifications sent out when when a class will be held? Can we even fill these classes? I’ve seen organizations develop or acquire programs to meet these basic business needs, create a lot of hoopla as they are rolled out and then they just fade away into obscurity as players on the training team change. The program becomes a series of booklets on a dusty shelf that will get tossed out by the next generation of the training team. The next trainers may receive a request for “…that training we had a while ago for the writing? I still have the handout, can we have that class again?” and scramble trying to find the class materials but end up developing something new because the class content left with the last trainer.

There are a lot of logistics and it often takes dedication and ongoing organization from one or two people to keep these going. Corporate curriculums should be living, breathing systems that change because, unlike an education institution, there aren’t that many new bodies moving through (if everything is done right) it. However, every organization I’ve worked with had the same requests for the basics such as: communication, time management, project management, business writing, and leadership coaching. How does a training organization develop and offer these when they may not be offered more than once a year?

While one of my great passions is instructional design, there are courses that I believe are better acquired off-the-shelf. I was looking at ASTD’s collection and considered just getting the collection for myself. I’ve tried to talk a few training organizations into getting these but either the price is too high or too low (perceived value) or the organization is sure these won’t meet their specific, “special” needs. Now I’m beginning to believe that if the trainer has these courses in their toolbox it will just be perceived as a valuable skill they bring to the organization.

Would trainers increase their professional value on the market by having their own basics training curriculum that can travel with them from organization to organization?

UPDATE: Alix provided a link to a very interesting site. This looks like a good model for an organization to maintain their basic skills training curriculum.