What Is IT Training? With Importance and Training Options

Updated 14 February 2023

IT training is critical in ensuring that candidates have the necessary knowledge and practical experience to conduct their IT responsibilities. IT training is valuable across many careers and can help candidates who wish to pursue a career in IT progress faster and gain many new skills. Understanding the answer to 'What is IT training?' can help you identify which training procedures may benefit your career development. In this article, we discuss what IT training is, review why employers use IT training, describe its importance, share training options and list the types of professionals that use training courses.

What is IT training?

Understanding the answer to 'What is IT training?' requires an analysis of IT training's main goals. IT training consists of courses that aim to educate candidates on the main topics of the IT industry. These courses seek to develop candidates' skills by teaching them new techniques and technical information that can help them progress and expand their scope of responsibilities and skills. IT training may consist of regular sessions to refresh a candidate's knowledge or ad-hoc intensive training courses dedicated to a single topic, such as updating systems or training on new software.

Training may be mandatory before candidates conduct their primary responsibilities. In some cases, candidates may gain certification through specific training courses to broaden their career prospects and qualify them for different IT roles. Training can also provide valuable support on your professional resume, demonstrating to hiring managers that you have valuable skills that can increase your chances of securing a new role or expedite your onboarding process.

Why do employers use IT training?

There are several reasons why employers use IT training in their business, one of which is that it's a mutually beneficial process for both candidates and employers. The reasons employers implement IT training for their employees may depend on the industry they work in. For example, employers may teach their employees essential skills that they require to fulfil their job description. Here are some reasons why employers might use IT training in their business:

Improves efficiency

The IT industry is fast-evolving, meaning that processes and techniques constantly change. To keep up with this and ensure that candidates don't fall behind on development, employers may introduce frequent training processes. This can have a significant positive impact on efficiency, as it minimises the chance of error and subsequent backlog. In addition, training helps to minimise the risk of error, as it can teach candidates how to troubleshoot anomalies internally instead of seeking outside help.

Minimising the risk of error helps to reduce the number of pauses in project completion and helps candidates effectively meet their deadlines. For example, with training, candidates may be able to spot an issue early, allowing the team to address the error before it becomes a major problem. This is especially useful in project processes, as it helps candidates to stay on schedule, ensuring they can complete the project on time and avoid operations going over budget.

Increases productivity

Learning new processes and techniques via training can increase the number of tasks a professional qualifies for, which can widen their scope. As training can also enhance efficiency, candidates can complete more tasks within a given time, giving them more opportunities to work on different projects alongside other professionals, thus contributing to their career progression.

Employers may also learn new ways of automating their operations with technology, as automation can allow a company to divert its focus to other important business functions. This can provide candidates with fewer administrative tasks and more opportunities to work on projects with tangible outcomes for the business. For example, IT training may teach candidates how to automate their customer-relationship management systems, meaning they have more time to interact personally with customers instead of focusing on administration.

Enhances skills

When candidates acquire new skills, they can make more effective contributions to the business. Training enables candidates to adopt new skills and enhance their pre-existing capabilities to keep pace with the changing technological industry. Their new skills can help them create new strategies and ways to develop, helping bring in more revenue and customers.

Learning new skills contributes to individual development by helping candidates progress into more senior positions and potentially helping them guide other candidates through mentoring. This can have a positive impact on company morale, confidence and individual self-esteem, supporting high employee retention rates and job satisfaction.

Helps the transition to different technologies

Companies may adopt several technologies as their business changes. For example, employers may implement new software to manage databases or new methods of automating elements like payroll. IT training is important to ensure that candidates can swiftly adjust to these changes. Some technologies may be entirely new to some professionals, meaning they may require more intensive training than their colleagues.

Conducting frequent training ensures that candidates can access basic IT information to expedite future training. Training sessions can also bolster candidates' confidence in using unfamiliar technological systems. This can lead employees to greater job satisfaction and quicker skills development.

Unites colleagues

Training sessions are opportunities for candidates to congregate and learn in a collaborative environment. Candidates may learn in small or large groups, guiding each other through IT processes and building each other's confidence. Employees may also have the opportunity to work across departments in this environment. This is important for breaking departmental barriers between candidates and ensuring high company morale.

This practice may also promote a more collaborative working environment outside of a training setting, potentially leading to higher productivity rates and increased efficiency. Collaboration can also have a significant positive impact on company culture, making the workplace a more positive environment and leading to higher retention and less work-related tension and stress among colleagues.

IT training options

Here are common training options that companies typically focus on in training sessions, including the elements they usually contain:

Design and development

Design and development usually encompass the creation of new platforms and data-management systems. This training is especially useful for professionals working in roles, such as web development and programming, who wish to optimise their knowledge of designing new websites, applications and software. Design and development are also useful for user experience and user interface (UX/UI) professionals, as this training focuses on improving the performance of websites for the front-end user. Taking part in this training can significantly improve customer experience with online platforms, potentially increasing company interaction and revenue.

Technical support

Technical support training refers to training dedicated to providing knowledge and product information about new and existing technological systems. This training is vital for professionals to understand how exactly to operate their technologies and troubleshoot minor issues. Receiving this training can help professionals streamline their operations and adjust to new technologies, minimising the chances of mishandling or technical error. Technical support training can help candidates complete tasks, such as managing desktop applications and software and hardware across the business.

Implementation

Implementation training helps candidates implement IT plans or strategies within the business. This is important in assisting candidates to incorporate new databases or technological processes into business operations, ensuring that the plan or strategy compliments these operations. In addition, this can ensure that incorporating new systems is seamless, minimising the risk of error or productivity overload resulting from misunderstanding and mismanagement.

Maintenance and management

Maintenance and management refer to training that supports candidates in the general management and operation of IT systems. This training can help candidates complete tasks such as maintaining infrastructure and online platforms, ensuring that all applications function optimally. Maintenance and management ensure that all candidates understand how to operate systems across the business and can conduct tasks like updates and minor programming changes. This training also teaches candidates how to reinforce cybersecurity, which is crucial to protecting sensitive information and assuring company continuity.

Who takes IT training courses?

All professionals may benefit from basic IT training, as many employees conduct their primary duties via technology. There may be some careers that regard IT training as essential to working within the role, such as:

computer programmers
software developers
data analysts
UX/UI professionals
front- and back-end developers
full stack developers
Computer systems analysts
web developers
IT engineers
technical architects
business analysts
cyber security specialists

What Is IT Training? With Importance and Training Options