The 2009 State of the Industry Report revealed that workplace learning and performance has withstood the challenges of the difficult economy. Although investment in training was stable in 2008, organizations achieved positive outcomes and successfully contributed to their employees’ development with more formal learning opportunities while using fewer resources.

Although many organizations were forced to cut costs wherever possible, workplace learning and performance did not suffer disproportionately to any significant degree. Investment in employee learning and development remained steady through the end of 2008. Although the average annual learning expenditure per employee fell from $1,110 in 2007 to $1,068 in 2008 – a 3.8 percent decrease – it was not large by any means. The commitment to learning is also evident from the figure for average learning expenditure as a percentage of payroll: it increased from 2.15 percent in 2007 to 2.24 percent in 2008.

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Categories: Research

Despite the roughest economy in decades, organizations showed a commitment to learning and development, spending $130 billion in 2008 - or roughly $1,068 per employee. That's one of the big findings in the just-released 2009 State of the Industry Report from ASTD. The numbers are down a bit from 2007, but the news is not glum. Read the press release here for more data. Or you can access the full report at www.astd.org if you are a member of ASTD -- and why wouldn't you be with great research like this?

Tags: state of the industry report, learning and development expeditures, training budgets, research

Categories: ASTD in the News | Government

ASTD is currently collecting data for our 2009 State of the Industry Report - the most sought after research in the industry of learning and performance. We have extended the deadline for participation this year to June 22, 2009.  All organizations that submit their learning and performance data by the deadline will receive a complimentary pre-release electronic copy of the report. Please consider entering your data as soon as possible so your organization can help set the standard for the industry and benchmark against other companies.

ASTD collects State of the Industry Report data through our WLP Scorecard - an online benchmarking tool that allows organizations to compare and benchmark against hundreds of other organizations in our database.  For more information on the WLP Scorecard, you may visit the WLP Scorecard or view a recorded webinar overview of the Scorecard and data submission.

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Categories: Research

The 2008 State of the Industry Report showed a continuation of rising trends in amounts of learning consumed per employee and average reuse ratio - the ratio of consumption to availablity of learning content. The amount of learning content consumed by each employee on average was on the upswing for the consolidated set of organizations. In 2007, the average number of learning hours used was 37.4, up from 35.1 in 2006. Employees in ASTD Benchmarking Forum organizations used an average of 43.0 learning hours in 2007. For the second consecutive year, the average number of learning hours used among ASTD BEST Award winners displayed a minor gain, rising from 44.3 hours in 2006 to 44.7 hours in 2007. These gains in the amount of content consumed suggest that business leaders expect the average professional to incorporate many learning activities into his or her annual schedule.

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Tags: state of the industry report, learning hours per employee, learning content reuse ratio

Categories: Research

With the latest release of the WLP Scorecard in February, we have opened submissions for 2008 organizational learning data.  Any 2008 data submitted to the WLP Scorecard will be used to produce ASTD's 2009 State of the Industry Report.

There are two ways to submit data for the 2009 State of the Industry Report: apply for a BEST Award, or submit your data to the WLP Scorecard.  BEST Award applications are due March 31, 2009 - more information can be found at http://www.astd.org/BEST.  You can learn more about the WLP Scorecard or register for an account at http://wlpscorecard.astd.org.  The first of the 3 subscription levels is free of charge - and you can run reports vs. the data entered so far at any time after data submission.  The data submission deadline for inclusion in the 2009 State of the Industry Report is June 15.

Tags: wlp scorecard, state of the industry report

Categories: Research