SkillSoft Announces Acquisition by Investor Group

SkillSoft PLC, a software as a service (SaaS) provider of on-demand e-learning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, government, education and small to medium-sized businesses, today announced that it has reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition of the company by a new company formed by funds sponsored by each of Berkshire Partners LLC, Advent International Corp. and Bain Capital Partners LLC.

Under the terms of the recommended acquisition, SkillSoft shareholders will receive $10.80 in cash for each SkillSoft ordinary share, representing a 26 percent premium to the average closing price over the one-year period ended on February 11, 2010 and a 49 percent premium to the average closing price over the five-year period ended on February 11, 2010. The fully diluted equity value of the transaction is approximately $1.1 billion.

"Skillsoft is pleased to announce this transaction, which is being unanimously recommended by the board of directors," said Chuck Moran, CEO of SkillSoft. "We believe the transaction is good for our shareholders as the offer represents an attractive premium relative to our trading history and, as an all cash offer, provides liquidity for shareholders. We view the transaction as an endorsement of SkillSoft's leadership and success, which has been achieved through the commitment of a dedicated team over many years."

"We are delighted to have reached agreement with the board of SkillSoft on this recommended transaction," said Michael Ascione, a managing director of Berkshire Partners, speaking on behalf of the investor group. "We believe the acquisition represents a compelling opportunity for SkillSoft and its shareholders that maximizes value and certainty, reduces execution risk and provides immediate liquidity. Berkshire, Advent and Bain Capital Partners look forward to supporting Chuck Moran and the SkillSoft team in creating long term value for SkillSoft's customers and pursuing the opportunities for growth that we see in existing business lines and new products and customer solutions."

SkillSoft will continue to be headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and led by the current management team, including Chuck Moran as CEO.

LXCI Remains Steady

The ASTD Learning Executives Confidence Index (LXCI) for Q4 2009 was 60.2 based on responses from 271 learning executives to an online invitation-only survey, demonstrating that collectively learning executives expect their learning functions to remain the same or marginally improve over the next six months.

Q4 2009 highlights include:

·         The confidence of learning executives (LXs) stabilized in the fourth quarter of 2009, after rebounding earlier in the year.

·         The overall LXCI for Q4 2009 was 60.2, essentially even with Q3 (60.7), demonstrating that collectively LXs expect their learning functions to remain the same over the next six months.

·         Two of the four major indices (impact on corporate performance and status as a key strategic component) decreased slightly in Q4, while the other two (ability to meet learning needs and availability of resources) registered only minor increases. This pattern highlights that expectations are stabilizing after reaching their highest on record in Q3.

·         Expectations for outsourcing on external services that aid in the learning function showed minor changes in Q4, with an increasing number of LXs foreseeing a continuation of the status quo or an increase in outsourcing.

·         Nearly three-quarters of LXs anticipated WLP funding to increase or remain the same in the next six months, an increase from Q3.

·         A majority of LXs who anticipated a decrease in their learning expenditures over the next six months predicted an improvement in their organization’s WLP expenditure from Q3 2011 onwards.

Learning executives (LXs) revealed plateauing scores in key indices in the fourth quarter, suggesting a continued sense of optimism in most key areas. After the drops at the end of 2008, executive confidence began to stabilize in Q1 2009, with increases being seen across the board in Q2 and Q3. In the latest quarter, the positive outlook on the performance of the learning function stabilized after confidence levels reached their highest on record in Q3.

The overall Learning Executives Confidence Index (LXCI) decreased only 0.5 points in Q4, from 60.7 to 60.2. Outsourcing is anticipated to increase, with 25.1 percent of LXs reporting that their utilization of external providers would increase, compared to 24.2 percent in Q3 and 17.0 percent in Q2. The effects of the economy continue to be evident among LXs, as a significant majority indicates the current economic conditions will impact the learning function. Conversely, only a small proportion (9.9 percent) of LXs indicates it will have no impact on the learning function in the next six months.

ASTD has created the ASTD Learning Executive Confidence Index (LXCI) to assess the outlooks and expectations of learning executives for the next six months on a 100-point scale, modeled after the CEO Confidence Indices reported by Chief Executive Magazine and The Conference Board.

For more information, go to www.astd.org/content/research/LXCI.htm.

Professional Instructional Design Volunteers Needed to Make a Difference for Children

e-Learning for Kids, a global non-profit foundation that reached more than 1.5 million children in 2009, depends on learning professionals like yourself to continue to grow the more than 175 basic skills curriculum by providing new best-in-class, highly engaging and interactive free e-learning courses for children ages 5-12 around the world. Courses help students build and strengthen skills in math, language arts, science, computers, health, life skills and the English language.

How can you help? The organization is seeking volunteer instructional designers to develop one or more storyboards for courses, as well as volunteer e-learning project managers and quality assurance volunteers to review, test, and give feedback. The start dates are in January, February, and March 2010 and the approximate time commitment is 50 hours during a period of eight weeks for the development of two storyboards.

You can keep your skills fresh, give back to the community, and have an opportunity to work collaboratively with other professionals around the world. If you are interested and available to participate as stated in any of these roles, email mail@lidyboone.nl.

2010 BEST Award Applications Due by March 31, 2010

The ASTD BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success as a result of employee learning and development. We are looking for organizations that get it: They use the learning function as a strategic business tool to get results.

Award winners demonstrate that they are excellent in many aspects of the learning function:  

·         learning has an enterprise-wide role: involved in the executive team, creating solutions to business issues, and setting organizational strategy

·         learning has value in the organization's culture: learning opportunities for employees, C-level involvement, learning for growth of the organization, and innovation 

·         learning links to individual and organizational performance: alignment with the business, efficiency, measurement of the effectiveness of learning, and success with non-training solutions for business needs

·         investment is made in learning and performance initiatives.

The 2010 award winners will

·         be featured in the October issue of T+D magazine 

·         be honored at a ceremony September 30 in Washington, D.C. at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center

·         meet their peers and share their award-winning practices at the annual Learn from the BEST conference October 1 at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington

·         have the privilege of using the 2010 ASTD BEST Award Winner logo.

To learn more, go to www.astd.org/ASTD/aboutus/AwardsandBestPractices/bestAwards.

Bersin & Associates Study Shows Drop in Employee Learning and Development Spending

Corporate learning and development (L&D) spending dropped sharply in 2009, leading to much leaner budgets and staffs. This is according to a just-published Bersin & Associates study, The Corporate Learning Factbook 2010: Benchmarks, Trends, and Analysis of the U.S. Training Market, which found that L&D spending dropped by 11 percent in 2009, for a total of a 22 percent drop over the last two years. The 2009 drop is the largest ever in spending on U.S. corporate training since Bersin & Associates began analyzing the market in 2001. In addition, the reduction in spending significantly impacted staffing. The median L&D staff size fell from 7.0 per 1,000 learners in 2008 to 6.2 in 2009.

According to Josh Bersin, president, the belt-tightening has forced L&D organizations to streamline and consolidate training functions. “The past two years have been a wake-up call for L&D. In order to survive, they’ve had to improve alignment with the business, centralize learning functions and focus on those training initiatives with the highest impact. As a result, they’re in a stronger position today – as the economy stabilizes and improves – to help their organizations gear up for new programs to support growth.”

Now in its fifth year, the Corporate Learning Factbook is based on a survey conducted in August 2009. The survey resulted in data from more than 1,400 organizations of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries. Other key findings of the study include:

·         After a decline in 2008, the percentage of training funds directed toward leadership development rebounded to 24 percent – an indication that companies are moving beyond a short-term, crisis management mode and are looking to strengthen their leadership teams for future success.

·         Although instructor-led training (ILT) remains the dominant delivery method, its use declined from 67 percent of training hours in 2008 to 60 percent in 2009. Some ILT hours were replaced with virtual classroom training (vILT), which uses a live, remote instructor broadcast online or over video. Use of vILT increased from 8 percent of training hours in 2008 to 13 percent in 2009. It allows organizations to maintain the benefits of live instruction, while avoiding the costs associated with travel and facilities.

·         More companies adopted newer technologies to facilitate learning through knowledge sharing and collaboration. Blogs and wikis both posted significant gains in 2009, with 14 percent of organizations using these tools in a learning context. Communities of practice also remained popular, used by 24 percent of companies for learning. These tools are not only cost-efficient but appeal to the collaborative and self-directed learning styles of today’s workforce. 

New Study Shows Training Evaluation Efforts Need Help

When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of training, most organizations admit they could do a better job, according to a study recently released by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). The study, Value of Evaluation: Making Training Evaluations More Effective, found that only about one-quarter of respondents agree their organizations get a “solid bang for the buck” from their training evaluation efforts.

The study, conducted in partnership with the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), is based on responses from 704 individuals in high-level positions in business, human resources, and learning. Eighty two percent of respondents worked for companies headquartered in North America, and 40.5 percent were employed by multinational or global organizations.

The study found that the five-level Kirkpatrick/Phillips model of learning evaluation is the most commonly used evaluation tool. Findings show that almost all organizations (92 percent of respondents) use the first level of evaluation which measures participant reaction. The use of the model drops off dramatically with each subsequent level, with very few organizations (17.9 percent of respondents) using Level 5 evaluation—return-on-investment for training. Findings also show that for organizations that effectively evaluate at Level 4, which measures business results, there is a positive correlation with marketplace performance.

Other key findings in the report include:

•       The Brinkerhoff Success Case Method is the second most widely used evaluation method. About half of respondents used some version of this method, which highlights individual training success stories to communicate the value of learning.

•       There are several barriers to the evaluation of learning including metrics that are seen as too difficult to calculate, isolating training as a factor that affects behaviors and results, and lack of leadership interest in training evaluation information.

•       An average of 5.5 percent of training budgets is spent on evaluation, and organizations tend to spend the largest share of their evaluation budgets on Level 1 (reaction) evaluations.

Also included in the report are recommended actions for learning professionals:

•       Don’t abandon evaluation. Learn to use metrics well as they are associated with evaluation success and overall organization success.

•       Establish clear objectives and goals to be measured from the outset of a training program. For example, if measuring at Level 3 (behavior change) identify and measure the behaviors that should change before and after training.

•       Collect data that is meaningful to leaders. Recognize that this type of data is not primarily found in participant reaction (Level 1) evaluations.

•       Indentify the key performance indicators to be measured. When evaluating results, focus on metrics such as proficiency and competency levels, customer satisfaction, employee perceptions of training impact, business outcomes, and productivity measures.

•       When choosing a learning management system, investigate the evaluation tools available with the system.

The report, Value of Evaluation: Making Training Evaluations More Effective, shows conclusively that organizations struggle with evaluating whether their programs meet the business needs of their organizations and whether they are meaningful to employees and business leaders. By delineating what organizations are currently doing, and identifying best practices and recommendations for improvement, ASTD hopes this report will help learning professionals and their organizations become more proficient and strategic when evaluating learning.

Training Executives Optimistic about Training in 2010, Reports CLO

Every other month, IDC surveys Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) on a variety of topics to gauge the issues, opportunities and attitudes that are important to senior training executives. This month the magazine looked at the CLO outlook toward the coming year.

CLO reports that training executives are increasingly optimistic about the outlook for employee development in 2010, with 60 percent of companies feeling more optimistic about 2010 compared with 2009. The reasons for optimism are not surprising.

Cushing Anderson, program director of learning services at IDC, writes “Training organizations and the wider enterprise report having a better understanding of what training topics have an impact on the bottom line and sharpen their focus.” Specifically, the survey found that 90 percent of companies expect that training will be more aligned with company business objectives in 2010, and 75 percent believe that the perception of training within their company will be higher. Finally, 74 percent report that the quality of their training offerings will improve in the next year.

When asked what they consider the most important activity their organizations tackle, CLOs listed leadership training; informal learning; self-paced e-learning; live e-learning; and instructor-led training. CLOs also continue to value learning management systems (LMSs).

Cushing concludes from the survey that much about this upcoming year is uncertain, and many CLOs see 2010 as another challenging year. Challenges from hiring to retirements and job changers will increase the importance of the training function. But less than 35 percent expect budget increases, and more than two-thirds of CLOs expect their organizations to do more training.

He writes, “Overall, companies believe the outlook for the learning function is similar to that of industries overall—it will be difficult, but there will be positive developments in the way organizations leverage and align learning, use tools and refocus on providing value to the organization.”

For more results and analysis of the survey, go to www.clomedia.com.

New Standard Supports Web 2.0 Information Sharing and Strategic Planning in the Public Sector

Enterprise content management  solutions company AIIM announces the release of AIIM 21:2009, Standard Recommended Practice—Strategy Markup Language—Part 1: StratML Core. "Consistent with President Obama's directives on openness, transparency, collaboration, and participation, the StratML standard will enable agencies to use Web 2.0 social networking technologies in support of their missions to engage citizens more efficiently and effectively in pursuit of strategic goals and objectives," said Owen Ambur, AIIM StratML committee chair.

This standard specifies an extensible markup language (XML) vocabulary and schema (XSD) for the elements that are common and considered to be part of the essential core of the strategic plans of all organizations worldwide. Included in the standard are two kinds of elements:  the StratML core elements themselves, and administrative metadata that provides useful context to the core elements and a sample schema. (View specifics at www.stratml.net.)

AIIM believes that StratML will formalize the strategic planning practice that all organizations go through but in an inconsistent manner. The use of this standard will enable information contained in strategic plans to be efficiently shared and analyzed. At the Federal level, StratML will enable citizens to provide feedback on agency strategic plans in a more efficient way than was previously possible.

"StratML will not only enable agencies to comply with the provisions of the eGov Act, but also bring together a greater sense of reality to the concept of strategic alignment in organizations of all types, by enabling literal linkages among strategic objectives and the records created in the ongoing business process supporting the objectives" said John F. Mancini, AIIM president. "This standard directly supports the Obama Administration’s initiatives for transparency that is an important step toward more effective content management in the government that can also be implemented in the private sector."

“StratML supports GPO’s core mission of ‘Keeping America Informed’ by providing a standardized framework in which federal agencies can develop, plan, share, and report on strategic initiatives.  It also supports the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) and provides transparency to government information through websites like GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys).  GPO was pleased to work on StratML and serve the public’s needs by increasing the access to, and the usefulness of, Federal information,” states Adam Schwartz, GPO Program Planner.
 
Leading experts in strategic management participated on the committee representing U.S. Federal Government agencies as well as private sector organizations.  Through the development of the standard, the committee with assistance from a number of organizations that provided tools and services to conduct proof-of-concept plans resulting in over 550 strategic plans being converted to StratML. These plans can be found at http://xml.gov/stratml.

The AIIM StratML committee is currently working on Part 2 of this standard which deals with performance plans and reports. Anyone interested in participating in the development of Part 2, is encouraged to contact AIIM's Director of Standards, Betsy Fanning at bfanning@aiim.org. For more information about StratML, please visit http://www.aiim.org/stratml.

CompTIA Boosts High-Tech Employment with Training Opportunities

CompTIA, the leading trade association for the information technology (IT) industry, recently launched a new initiative aimed at boosting high-tech employment opportunities—Getting America Back to Work. This initiative will assist local Workforce Investment Boards across the country and their “One-Stop Centers” to help individuals with adequate technical aptitude gain the training and certifications needed to secure IT jobs.

“The current employment market for high-tech workers can best be described as a paradox,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. “At a time when unemployment is at its highest level in more than a quarter century, hiring managers struggle to fill tens of thousands of jobs requiring certain high-tech skills,” he adds.

The Getting America Back to Work program is designed to streamline the process that Workforce Investment Boards and One-Stop Centers use to place unemployed individuals, career changers, and people new to the workforce into an IT job. The process has just four steps:

•       Assess: MeasureUp, Inc., an assessment and certification practice test company, provides an aptitude test to measure an individual's technical knowledge and ability to determine if they should pursue a career in IT.

•       Train: Individuals who show promise can take IT certification classes at one of CompTIA's Education to Careers member schools or commercial training providers that teach to the skills required for certification.

•       Certify: CompTIA’s vendor-neutral certifications map to the skills required for many of the open IT jobs across the country; and many employers mandate or prefer IT professionals with industry certifications. At this step, individuals are directed to the right certification test upon completion of their training.

•       Place: A job placement tool filters through local job opportunities by zip code and job titles that are consistent with the skills covered by CompTIA certifications to hasten the placement process.

CompTIA’s Getting America Back to Work website is free.  For more information, visit www.comptia.org/certifications/backtowork.aspx.