US Funded Environmentally Friendly Training Programme Launched

The US based Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) has chosen Guangdong as its first 'environment partner' in the Chinese mainland according to Xinhua.  The organisation plans to train 1,800 Chinese managers on environment, health and safety control in Guangdong every year.  

The result: to make Chinese businesses become more observant of environmental protection laws and rules.  Click here to see how ISC transformed an industrial city in Russia. Let's hope they can do the same thing on a much larger scale in Guangdong.

It's great to see foreign organisations providing training with a focus on environmental awareness and sustainability.  We all know that pushing environmental issues in China is sometimes not an easy task.

Does anyone know of any similar organisations in China providing this type of training?

Training in China Since the Downturn

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Has the Training Industry Really Changed Track?

Interesting article by Paul Bacon over at eChinaCities titled 'Training Changes Track'.  His thesis is essentially that companies seeking training will focus more on the specific outcomes of corporate training as opposed to simply using it as a basic staff retention tool. 

Bacon claims that companies no longer need to use training as a staff retention tool as employees have a much stronger focus on keeping their jobs and maintaining their current salaries:

"...The crisis is likely to make HR departments wake up and focus on training that will provide clear, measurable, performance-based results. The focus will shift from ‘softer’ goals (recruitment, retention, employee morale) to ‘harder’ goals (employee performance, profit margins, KPIs)...."

At Yaxley Education, our focus has always been to design tailored courses that meet the specific goals of companies.  I think HR departments in most large foreign enterprises here have always seen 'measurable, performance-based results' as an essential component when selecting training.  

I personally think most Bacon's statements are also really only relevant to foreign companies.  From our experience, large Chinese companies (particularly SOE's) continue to use training as a basic staff retention and employee morale tool.  This is how they relate to training and I don't think this will change any time soon.  Any thoughts on this article?

Battle in the Training Industry

It seems a disagreement has sprung up in the training industry in China between two foreign-owned training providers.

ClarkMorgan claims another foreign operated training firm stole their training materials. Managing Director, Morry Morgan, posted the following comment on the China HR Professional's forum on LinkedIn:

"I would like to hear from others in the training market who have had their IPR stolen by unscrupulous competitors. My company was recently the victim of name disclosed, who even went so far as to post their material on a 3rd party website (http://tinyurl.com/dcxw86) in plain view of my company (and our lawyers). 

I've uploaded a comparison at http://www.slideshare.net/morryone/tw-allison-copyright-infringement"

Morgan has also posted further details on the main page of his website.

Protecting the intellectual property rights of training materials is difficult anywhere- but even more difficult in China.  It's a known fact that protecting one's IP rights is not an easy task here.

I think it's important to remember that the training materials are just one part of the training equation. Good materials must be accompanied by outstanding delivery, comprehensive testing and a responsible trainer in order to be effective. In China, we can only do so much to protect what we have put hours of our time into developing but at the end of the day good customer service, experienced trainers and a satisfied client-base cannot be stolen. 

Thoughts?

Another Visa Shake-Up?

It seems the training industry in China may be in for yet another shake-up.  

Reports are arising that F visas have become increasingly difficult to get a hold of in the last few weeks due to the upcoming celebrations of the founding of the PRC.  A recent article published by AP states that Chinese visas regulations were tightened just three days ago due to swine flu- particularly for American citizens.

The training industry saw a massive shake-up last year in the lead up to the Olympics. The restrictions on visas saw the closure of many English language training organisations and agencies which relied on cheap foreign labour and F visas.  

Although it is technically illegal to work on F visas, hundreds (if not thousands) of schools encourage foreign teachers to work on them.  Although the government has every entitlement to a crackdown, many of the smaller, Chinese-owned training organisations are fearing a second crackdown and the impact it will have on their businesses. Watch this space.

Cross Cultural Controversy

Interesting post over at ChinaSuccessStories by Greg Bissky that seems to gave sparked some debate between the expats and the locals.  Greg's thesis is that China has changed but the Chinese people haven't.

Two readers, both local Chinese, have commented on the article claiming the author fails to recognise that China has its own culture that should be respected.  Michelle, one angry reader, writes: I feel your comment “how Chinese communicate, solve problems and build business relationships is changing, but slowly” sums up your attitude- and it is extremely offensive. It is this elitist attitude that gives westerners a bad name. 

A few foreign readers have fired back claiming the two Chinese readers do not understand the article.  The final line in the article states "Westerners need to look at business through Chinese glasses".

Did Bissky's article overstep the line?  Or was he just calling for more efficient and understanding communication?  I think we'll go for the latter, but please feel free to comment.

By the way, Greg has a great video on his website on cultural communication. Definitely worth a look.

IP Firms + Downturn = Training

Interesting piece of news posted on Australian legal site 'Practice Source'.  According to the article, Chinese intellectual property firms have begun investing more into training as the downturn begins to effect the industry.

"The slowdown in growth in patent filings in China has provided many IP firms with an ideal opportunity to improve their employees' skills.  In recent months, many firms in mainland China have increased their budgets to develop, nurture and retain their employees in an industry that continues to starve of talent".

It's great to see so many different industries continuing to invest in training despite having more challenging times upon us.