Software Training Blog

The Software Training Industry has changed significantly in the last ten years. The next time you’re at Barnes and Noble check out the computer section—it’s 25% the size it was 10 years ago. Much of CustomGuide’s competition  has gone out of business or has been acquired by an overseas firm. Ten years ago, most of CustomGuide’s clients were training centers – today we only have a handful.

This sounds like an industry that is dying, but I don’t think the industry has died so much as it has changed. In my opinion, there have been three distinct eras to the Software Training Industry:

Pre-Software Training

When: 1970-1990
Learning Method: Limited classes and self paced learning
Covering: Various, computer theory
Duration: Varied

I don’t consider this a Software Training era, as many people weren’t even using computers at this point. The Software Training industry was still in its infancy and classes on such programs as BASIC and Lotus 1-2-3 were usually offered by schools, not companies.

Outside Classroom Training

When: 1990-2001
Learning Method: Outside classes
Covering: Entire programs (Microsoft Excel)
Duration: 1-3 days

Ah, the heyday of software training… everyone started using software—but it was new and unfamiliar, and classroom training was the answer. Organizations sent their staff to several days of training that covered entire software programs. Everyone needed training and thousands of training centers and consulting firms sprung up to meet that demand, creating a multi-billion dollar industry.

The Outside Classroom Training era came crashing down shortly after the dot-com bubble popped in and training companies – especially training centers - disappeared as quickly as they appeared in the 1990s.

Some people in the Software Training Industry feel this was the end of the industry altogether, but the industry had simply moved on to a very different era…

In-House Training

When: 2001-2007
Learning Method: Small in-house classes and Online Learning
Covering: Broad areas of a program (Creating Charts in Excel)
Duration: Several hours

Time moved on; people went to their outside software training classes and learned how to use Microsoft Office, Windows, and the Mac OS. Of course very few people – even instructors (or people who work at software training companies) — know how to use every feature in these programs when they need them.

Companies couldn’t justify sending their staff to expensive, 3 day outside classes to sit through many topics the users already knew, so they set up their own internal training departments to offer their own classes. These internal classes usually didn’t cover entire programs, like Microsoft Excel, they covered areas of those programs, like Creating Charts in Excel.

eLearning was also hot; larger eLearning companies made millions pitching and selling the next generation of learning to organizations. Unfortunately, as compelling as eLearning is, many companies didn’t see a strong return on their eLearning investment (ROI) (see (entry name and link) for why I think this happened) and left eLearning with a sour taste in their mouth.

The In-House Training Era never really ended (people will always need in-house training) so much as it’s been eclipsed by a new era…

Learn On Demand

When: 2008-?
Learning Method: Self-service learning
Covering: Short topics (Creating a Pie Chart in Excel)
Duration: Several minutes to an hour

I have no doubt the Software Training Industry has gradually entered a new and radically different era: Learning On Demand.

People have been using computers for many years now. Some people know how to create Pie Charts in Excel and some don’t – the problem is determining who knows what. People also don’t have a lot of time, and view training the same as exercise: They know it’s important and beneficial, but they never seem to make it a priority.

Unfortunately these challenges have caused the Software Industry to deteriorate even further, and many eLearning companies have disappeared just as their training center cousins did because they didn’t address these problems.

I think the Learn On Demand era is all about the individual user: providing self-service training on the topics they need in bite-sized sessions. Training Departments have a new role in a Learn On Demand world: Supporting, promoting, and managing their training programs, which is just as important as the training itself.

CustomGuide has spent the past two years adapting all our products to meet the challenges of the Learn On Demand era. In my next blog I’ll talk about what you can do to meet these challenges as well.

Have a nice week!

Jon High
President, CustomGuide
Learn On Demand
CustomGuide Software Training