E-learning and L&D salary data for the UK

The Blue Eskimo training and e-learning work and salary survey for 2011 makes interesting reading but leaves many important questions unanswered - at least for me. In total, 813 people from Blue Eskimo's client databases, predominantly UK-based, completed the survey. Blue Eskimo is a recruitment consultancy, so it is possible that this skews the results somewhat, because presumably only people interested in getting work will be on the database in the first place.

Participants were mostly from the private sector, with 32% working in IT training, 21% e-learning, and 20% soft skills training. Of these, 13% were designers and 27% trainers, with the rest in various management and sales roles. Some 80% were in permanent positions.

Some key findings:

• Salaries were holding up well for permanent employees, although 60% had not received an increase in the past year.
• There was a definite downward shift in daily rates for contractors, with more people moving into the sub-£300-a-day bracket. This would not be surprising if most of these contractors were classroom trainers. With a lot of redundancies in L&D, supply of freelancers is bound to increase and that will affect rates.
• Some 80% work longer hours than they are paid for, a few more than 20 hours a week. This seems to me to be a sign of organisations pushing harder to get more work from less people. It might also mean that those in work are prepared to put up with a lot because at least they have a job.
• Most are quite or very happy with their work (let's face it, there are worse fields in which to work) and 70% feel challenged/stretched - perhaps there's a relationship.
• On the other hand, nearly 60% are considering changing jobs in the next 12 months - that's assuming they can find one.

So why are there questions unanswered? Well, for me, the really interesting data would come by comparing the data for those primarily involved in classroom work and those in e-learning. You would expect very different results in times such as these. Let's hope Blue Eskimo break this out next year.