How to improve the training pay‐off

A lot of so‐called training has about as much relevance to the organisation's needs as does the game of Monopoly to the property business. Furthermore, after witnessing many organisations paying large sums of money for off‐the‐shelf training packages, one can only assume that some of those selling the courses are the direct descendants of the nineteenth‐century pedlars of snake oil and other all‐purpose cures. Whilst a number of trainers are to present‐day management what the alchemist was to the mediaeval rulers, they have convinced them that their magic formula can turn leaden personnel into eighteen‐carat gold managers. Hence, at the risk of mixing metaphors, to term it the great training robbery is fair comment.