June is the busiest month for corporate training in the U.S., according to Novations Group, a global learning and development firm based in Boston. December is generally the slowest.
Finding time for training programs has long been challenging, said Rebecca Hefter, Novations senior vice president for training. “The trend is toward reduced classroom hours, more training done on the job and greater reliance on e-learning. Nevertheless, carving out a week or more for training is an issue for most organizations.”
As a result, training programs tend to be clustered in certain months and occur less often at other times, Hefter said. “In addition to June, the months of May and March are full of activity, as are both September and October. By contrast, December, November and July are three-week months, which makes scheduling conflicts unavoidable.”
Interestingly, August holds its own as a prime training month, Hefter said. “The late summer used to be a slack period, but no longer. This probably reflects a broader trend away from one long summer holiday to several shorter vacations.”
Hefter believes one reason that training may spike in September has to do with budgeting. “[Training and development] departments sometimes find they have unspent training dollars that they want to use before the end of their fiscal year, which is often Sept. 30.”
