In a recent article, Allan Pratt made the claim that most companies today do not provide training for their IT employees - assuming that if they gain this training, they will leave the company and take their new knowledge elsewhere. http://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/23388-Invest-in-Employees-vs-Pay-for-a-Data-Breach.html This is very different from my personal experience, so I thought I would investigate a little. Is it really rare for large companies to assist IT employees in continuing their education? Wouldn't this be a huge disadvantage for any company to do this?
Pratt's claims seem a little exaggerated. The first link I found details the educational assistance programs of 25 Fortune 500 companies http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/financial-aid/top-company-college-tuition-reimbursement-programs/. Many of these programs are modest - say, 75% of tuition costs up to $5,000 per year, for example. However - assuming most employees wouldn't be full time students, this could cover a large amount of the costs. Perhaps not surprisingly, Walmart is one of the lowest...
What I found interesting is almost every company seems willing to help at least somewhat with continuing education - but none seem willing to really embrace it fully. How much SHOULD a company be willing to spend? Does it make sense to scrimp a bit on educational assistance... And then pay a fortune due to a data breach? What is the best way to educate employees - making them happy and loyal?
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