May Bulletin
Technology Trends: Talking with Laura Berman, ESRI Australia's Training Manager
This month the Training Bulletin spoke with Laura Berman, ESRI Australia's Training Manager about the state of play regarding training in the last 6 months and what people can expect in the coming 6 months. With the release of the July - December 2009 Training Schedule we talk to Laura to assess what has been popular, what has changed and what does the remainder of 2009 have in store. Thanks for taking the time to speak with the Training Bulletin Laura. With the release of the July to December Training Schedule, we were interested to understand what major trends and successes you have seen take shape in the training field over the last 6 months and what is in store for the next 6 months.
Bulletin: Earlier this year, ESRI Australia introduced 3 new Desktop courses to replace the Introduction to GIS I & II courses - have these courses been popular?
Laura: The Desktop courses were really well received, in particular Getting started with GIS. We found that it really filled a need in the market to educate new users of GIS technology and location intelligence (LI) solutions who had not previously had exposure to GIS and its capabilities. With GIS moving into the mainstream of technology and being more widely used across a range of different industries, we are finding that there are a substantial number of business managers and analysts who have had no previous exposure to LI and have a need to understand the basic principles of location and GIS technology. The concepts explored in Desktop I provide a great introduction to how LI can be used.
Desktop I course attendees have also found the logical progression to Desktop II and Desktop III more beneficial as a result of having a solid understanding of the principles of GIS.
Bulletin: Aside from the popularity of the Desktop courses, what other trends have you seen in training in the last 6 months?
Laura: The last 6 months have seen a heavy focus on ArcGIS Server training courses. Obviously as the popularity of the Server technology increased, we expected to see Server related courses filling up quickly. What we noticed though, was that there was a gap in the Server courses from an intermediate user perspective, with courses aimed primarily at new users or developers Bulletin: You mention the gap in intermediate level ArcGIS Server courses. How and when do you see this being rectified? You'll see a new course to fill this gap within the coming 6 months.
Many of the Bulletin readers would have noticed that last month we started talking about the Building Web Maps Using the ArcGIS API for JavaScript course which will be released in the later part of this year. This course is a good example of an intermediate ArcGIS Server course. The focus of this course is teaching users of the Server technology who want to do a little more with their technology but who are not fully fledged developers.
The next 6 months will also see a number of new ArcGIS Server training courses being added to our training schedule and will have a ArcGIS 9.3.1 focus, so stay tuned
Bulletin: Aside from the course specific trends for the coming 6 months, what do you see being the main focus for ESRI Australia training as 2009 progresses?
Laura: Well, the next 6 months will be a really interesting time in the world of training. We will see more courses re-engineered to have a very specific workflow focus which can be applied directly to everyday processes. At ESRI Australia we have accepted the challenge of ensuring that our training delivers value for money and is outcome focused. We understand that now more than ever organisations have a responsibility to all parties involved with their business to manage expenditure and ensure viable operating budgets.
Managing a team of training professionals, I understand the value of professional development and continued education, but as Manager of the training portfolio, I also understand the associated cost pressures. So I personally look for training and professional development for our team that is value for money; ensuring training translates to applied skills and real benefits. Last year ESRI Australia highlighted the value of the course Managing editing workflows in the Multiuser Geodatabase. This course is focused around workflows; applicable, tangible workflows that can be directly translated in the workplace. Further highlighting and focusing on these workflows in our training courses will ensure that our course attendees are participating in value for money courses, that ESRI Australia is helping to deliver real value to their business, something we take very seriously.