More Learning per Employee, More Reuse are Continued Trends in the Training Industry

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 availability 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.

The consolidated average reuse ratio for learning content (i.e., the ratio of learning hours used to learning hours available) has also been on the rise in the past five years, reaching 44.8 in 2007. This ratio means that every hour of content provided was used by learners an average of 44.8 times. These consistent gains in content reuse indicate significant advancements in operational efficiencies, which likely were aided by e-learning solutions. The average reuse ratio for Forum organizations has also been increasing steadily. The 2007 figure for Forum organizations was 37.4. BEST Award-winning organizations had the highest average reuse ratio on record at 57.9 in 2007, suggesting an impressive amount of content reuse among those enterprises.

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