Business success should be the impetus behind online training - not a desire to save money, warn skills experts. But as the economic slowdown bites, training is often a tempting item to slash from IT budgets.

At NetGlobal's (NetG) elearning conference in Las Vegas, online training gurus Elliot Masie and Brandon Hall told delegates that we're in the midst of a learning era where training and staff development are central not only to staff recruitment and retention, but also to company survival.

In the past this might have seemed little more than rhetoric. Today, however, it's a view shared by an increasingly large number of people.

"The slowdown in the economy is making us all squirm," said NetG chief executive Gary Lopez. But he's confident that while training was traditionally the first target of expense control when times were tough, this time around companies should recognise that it's mission-critical.

"Training, especially for IT, is no longer something that's 'nice to have'," said Lopez. "Companies looking to control expenses are actually better off investing in training. As they downsize, it's important to keep employees up to speed and to help individuals step up to their new roles."

The immaturity of elearning - training online - however, means many companies are holding back from making the move.

"One of the biggest mistakes people make when they talk about elearning is to talk about the elimination of the classroom," says Masie. 'We need to take the emphasis away from delivery methods and focus instead on how we can deploy learning in a way that makes people want to take advantage of it."

Scottish Equitable, for example, is opening its third learning centre in May. Elearning is an important element of its overall corporate learning programme and part of a culture of continual development.

"The labour market in Edinburgh is very tight," says group training manager Stephen Leitch. "Investing in people is a big business strategy and from a staff attrition perspective, my feeling is that it works."

As part of the programme, employees have access to advanced IT training courses in their own time. "We know this increases their employability, but we don't worry about people leaving. We hope they'll stay with us for other reasons," adds Leitch.

The company includes a computer-based training element in its induction programme for all employees, which highlights the company's commitment to staff development.

Masie, meanwhile, predicts a trend whereby companies begin to offer access to continual learning as part of a severance offering to individuals it lays off because of the economic situation.

"Companies will need to hire back some of the people they lay off in a few months' time," he predicts. "Learning will be used strategically in the war for talent. People stay in jobs for two reasons - because they're working on core projects or learning new things."

Also published in Computing