1.2. Training Policy in Companies in 2007

Training expenditure in 2007
In 2007, training expenditures in general continued to grow as companies keep paying more attention to training. Most training buyers either increased their training expenditure or maintained the same as in 2006. 48% of the training buyers have increased their training expenditures in 2007. 38% have the same training budget as their previous year. Only 14% of the buyers have decreased their budget on training.

It seems that the pace of growth of spending on training does not keep up with overall increases in company expenditures. Generally, the proportion of training expenditures in total company expenditures has decreased. 46% of the buyers have less than 2.5% of their overall budget assigned for training. Thirty-seven percent dedicated between 2.5% and 5% for training. Only 3% planned more than 10% of their overall budget for training.

In comparison to 2006, the share of the group who spent the least on training (less than 2.5%) has increased by 9%. The share of the group who spent between 2.5% and 5% of their overall budget on training dropped around ten percent. The third group has also dropped by 4%. Although a lot of respondents declare that their training expenditure has increased, the increase is smaller than the increase of the companies’ overall budget.

When asked to select five groups of employees on which they spend the largest percentage of their training budget, training buyers usually pointed to Middle Managers, with 80% of the respondents selecting this group among possible other choices. Senior Managers ranked second, scoring 61%. The other three groups include Future Leaders/High Potentials, Sales Employees and First-Line Supervisors.

Of interest to the researchers was that training buyers are in practice spending most of their training budget in the areas they perceive as being of the poorest quality in China, in particular on those areas that have the biggest room for improvement.

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