Understanding the training and development (T&D) industry in Malaysia

Here are my views on the T&D industry in Malaysia. There are a few big players and lots of small players who pretend to be big. Everybody I know seems to have their own company and flying solo although they pretend that they have lots of staff on the payroll. Whenever they have a project, they simply call their pals.

Training activities tend to focus on skills. Pretty everybody does the same thing but some try to sell the idea that they know something other trainers don't know. This is of course not true. Everybody pretty much knows the same thing.

Development activities tend to focus on developing knowledge. Lets say that you are a company and one of your key technical managers doesn't know anything about strategy. One solution is to hire somebody (like me) and go through a tailor made course so they develop useful knowledge for the company.

My approach is based on Action Learning. I get people to talk about what they experience at work and we talk about how they can do things differently. It's not "telling them" what to do but it is more about thinking about alternative solutions to try out.

The biggest area for growth in the T&D industry is probably going to be parents. Parents are spending a fortune to send their kids to universities and they end up being unemployed. Their lack of employability generally boils down to insufficient communication skills and insufficient problem solving skills. I have always dreamt of finding 10 rich parents so that I can coach their kinds through university.....