The late comedienne Linda Smith once laughed, “I love Waitrose – it’s that little bit more expensive.�

It’s a funny old world, but until the recent credit crunch, we consumers were sold the view that “It must be good if it costs that much�, or �Low prices for cheap goods�. The marketing boys had it all sewn up – imagine the luscious Marks & Spencer adverts, with “This is not ordinary food, this is….� On the other hand, the stores cheap ranges were acknowledged by ultra thrifty shoppers but barely noticed by you and me.

In Computer training, high price colleges (aren’t they the best - if you have the money - why else would so many people use them?) convinced us that colleges exist who’ll do it cheaper but be warned, it won’t be as good.

Then lo and behold, the economy is in tatters, and all at once value becomes our mantra! Discerning shoppers abandon Waitrose, and instead head towards Aldi and Lidl. Stockbrokers and their fat cat payouts are out of favour, and we all re-evaluate our spending habits.

Maybe we’ve been taken in by companies charging more? Dig a little further into the British Computer training market, and maybe the big boys with their fancy prices are not all they seem. Just because industry’s crying out for an ever increasing number of skilled programmers and networking professionals, is it essential to fork out over five thousand pounds to get qualified, or are these prices outdated? It’s a bit rich that many computer training providers aren’t using fully interactive methods - supplying students with pen and paper methods. Is it reasonable to wade through books when anything can be downloaded and watched on computers? Is it necessary to drive to training centres, forking out for our hotel bills to get teaching we could have online? Round the clock Interactive support should be available for me just that – at my convenience, but not at my cost.

With newer, user friendly training options around now at less than half these prices, perhaps we should wake up to the fact that in terms of electronic learning, value means lower cost for higher quality. Things are changing in IT training – in supermarket terms, it’s slashed prices for best ever products. In this knowledge hungry world we live in, bring it on.

(C) Scott Edwards - www.learninglolly.com. Scott Edwards has been involved in the IT and Training Industry for 30 years.

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