After Hours

It is not in the Companies best interest to "Certify" their employees unless they are willing to COMPENSATE them to keep them. Our experience is that most of the people who get certifications, ie MCSE, will seek more lucrative contracts. The employer must have established loyalty from the trainee in order to keep them. Those employees that take the initiative to get certifications on there own (they pay) are usually the ones that are "looking" for a new job. We train our employees to get the job done. They usually get the piece of paper(Cert) on their own. If an employees needs are being met, then most likely they will stay with the company regardless of training opportunities. Most of the good IT pros that I know are self taught. Many have no interest in getting certifications but usually do to command the higher salary that comes with it. We prefer experience rather than "Certifications".
I am not an experet in this area, these are only my opinions and observations!
sselder@konnect.net

It looks like you are asking two questions -- why should management support training and why should they care if their employees are certified.

The first is pretty staight-forward. Trained employees are more efficient and more effective. They canhandle a broader range of tasks. With a larger skill set, they are more likely to express whatever natural creativity they already posess. For example, clerical staff trained in MS Access may learn how to join tables in a way that exposes an important fact or trend. This information might have gone unnoticed or may have required outside involvement (IS, contractor, etc).

As for the second, that's a little tougher. Many employers fear that if they help their employees become certified that they are helping them out the door. That doesn't have to be the case. Certification should be considered for merit raises, for assigning interesting and challenging work, and for promotion. But that didn't answer your question. From a management perspective, I think the be

You ask, why would an employer want to train the employee and run the risk of losing him or her? The answer is simple. Why would the employer want to NOT train the employee, and keep him or her? There is indeed a cost of training - just as there is a cost of NOT training. One is counted in dollars. The other is counted in lost dollars. Train the employee. Make arrangements to compensate the employee when the return on the training dollar can be realized. Give the employee an incentive to use that new training to inprove the company's bottom line. Loyalty is a two way street, you know.