IT managers cite plenty of reasons for not spending money on training their developers, writes Lisa Vaas for Software Quality Connection. Excuses include: Not having a training budget, poor ROI, the necessity of having staff out generating billable hours instead of in training, and arguably the most interesting response—if properly trained, they would go get another job.

In other words, writes Vaas, “You like them stupid.”

In essence, that’s the message you’re sending if you’re not willing to keep IT staff up to snuff, especially in an age where “highly skilled one day is as good as yesterday’s fish the next day.” The article suggests that IT managers keep in mind: 1. Expecting staff to use free time to train themselves is a retention nightmare. 2. Demonstrating that training improves productivity can help free up training dollars. 3. Investing in training that might pay off in five years is sometimes a necessary gamble. 4. If you don’t give staff time to recharge their batteries, they’ll burn out.

Read more at Software Quality Connection ^[1].