Money well spent is money well earnt

A certain type of client embraces the illusion that if they use internal expertise in some sort of education, they will save money - as compared to actually investing in a professional teacher who is an expert in the area. This is a strange way of reasoning, when almost everyone I talk to agrees that the actual cost of an education is the time of the co-workers attending a class instead of doing their daily work.

If you use one of your co-workers as a trainer, you might spend less money on the actual course, but the cost of your employees not “bringing in the bread” is still the same. And as a side effect that “teacher” you use might be an expert in his/her area, but how well does he present this area to the crowd? Does the course actually give something to the participants, or is it just another speech by some manager, adding short term engagement and then quickly forgotten?

In my line of work, I have met countless experts who might be world leaders in their area, but totally useless in explaining the benefits to a non-expert. In the end, why invest money in education? My answer would be that you want a higher efficiency, not just a mark in your HR department's “to-do-list”.

Stop being stingy and use your money where it is best spent. I guarantee you a substantial higher ROI than if you “save” money by using internal “teachers”.