Tailor-made Training: Huge returns on investment

Cost-effective

To date, 59 training courses have been accepted for implementation and have either already been completed or are ongoing. The majority of these trainings (66%) cost less than € 50,000. The average number of trainees per training is 20 and the average investment per trainee doesn’t exceed € 2,000, making the training courses value for money. We find that for a reasonable budget, important and significant investment in human capital and organisational strengthening is being achieved, and in a way that is targeted and relevant for the requesting organisations in the labour market.

While the TMT programme is a lean and mean programme - which for the most part also allows for lean and mean administration - the assessment of proposals is a time consuming activity. This is due to the technical nature of the proposals, their number and diversity. Even so, the programme costs for this activity are compensated by the quality of proposals that are selected, which ensures that the programme is truly developing relevant capacities, where the need for training and link to national development is clear.

Enthusiasm

Apparently, TMT has also been well-received in the partner countries. As knowledge of the existence of the programme has grown, interest in the programme has also grown and is evidenced by the growth in the number of applications for training (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The TMT programme has been well received. The number of applications and granted applications is growing.

Organisations that have to date already completed their training highly commend TMT. The director of the electricity company discussed earlier says:

“TMT is useful and effective. The training was very very very useful for [the organisation]. What we’ve learnt in the training is now being put into implementation. Some of our operations in specific areas have already improved and others are improving.”

The Dutch experts who provided the training are also positive. A senior manager at Saxion University of Applied Sciences says:

“TMT is the icing on the cake. It is an interesting endeavour to involve [our] staff in. The target group - professionals in a work setting - is quite unusual for an education institution [like ours]. But it is rewarding to get involved in such training in terms of fulfilling Saxion’s corporate responsibility and the noticed enthusiasm and motivation of the involved staff members. Unpredictability of TMT is however less valued.”

However, the planned reduction of the number of Dutch diplomatic duty stations worldwide could have an impact on the participation in TMT in countries with no diplomatic posts. Embassies are key players in the implementation of TMT, in that they publicise the programme and are a convenient contact point for (potential) applicants when they require information and advice.

The sky is not the limit

While this modality of building capacity has undeniable strengths, Nuffic still remains very careful and critical when assessing the proposals. The sky is not the limit and not all applications received are accepted (Figure 2).

The reasons for this are that some organisations send in applications which do not indicate insight into the capacity constraints faced by the organisation and in which the need for training and/or external intervention is questionable. Some proposals lack follow-up measures that would allow sustainable implementation of the lessons learned within the organisation. Yet other proposals admit that the training is being used as a “sweet” measure to appease and retain staff where the organisation is facing a high staff turnover.

In other proposals, the training simply does not fit within the nature of work of the organisation, track record or the basic capabilities of the staff to be trained are not sufficient. An example of such a proposal is that made by a small church-based  NGO which requested 24-week training in agro-meteorological forecasting so that forecasts could be made at the village level to warn farmers of upcoming droughts (food security context). This training lacked credibility in that the organisation lacked suitably qualified staff who could grasp such material within such a short period and who did not have the computing experience or infrastructure. Basically, the organisation did not have a relevant foundation upon which the TMT could build.

Although the TMT programme does not impose minimum academic qualifications of trainees, it is important that the trainees have some experience or background in the proposed topic of training or discipline for the training to be feasible.

Figure 2: Although the number of applications is growing, not all proposals for training meet the requirements for the TMT programme. Nuffic will look into how to increase the chance of receiving quality applications so that the effort put into developing and assessing each proposal is worthwhile.