Epic a 'good value' stock

Investor’s Chronicle, 10 June 2005

A special report in Investors Chronicle on education, recruitment and training highlights online training as the ‘hot’ part of the market. While expectations on recruitment have fallen (CIPD – 45% of employers expect a fall in employee numbers and only 22% an increase). Other evidence points towards 35% of employers increasing their training budget, with only 12% planning to spend less.

Epic was named as the only training company that would benefit from this trend as a ‘workplace training business’ that operates across the private and public sector. It was recommended as a ‘good value’ stock. See the Epic investors' section for more information.

UFI Report

Further market evidence for Epic’s strength comes on the back of a well researched report commissioned by Ufi from Hi Europe and Howard Hill Associates, which looked at over 500 companies' experience and attitudes towards e-learning.

The findings are as follows:

E-learning growth

Companies who are current users of e-learning see it growing from 15% to 29% of all training delivered (on average). Indeed, all companies have the expectation that e-learning will grow over the next two years:

1. 5000+ employees see e-learning increase from a current 14% to 33%
2. 1000-4999 employees see e-learning increase from a current 10% to 30%
3. 500-999 employees see e-learning increase from a current 8% to 26%

Classroom to shrink

This is largely displacing classroom activity:

1. 5000+ employees see classroom decrease from a current 69% to 52%
2. 1000-4999 employees see classroom decrease from a current 72% to 53%
3. 500-999 employees see classroom decrease from a current 75% to 57%

Top benefits of e-learning

1. Greater flexibility of learning
2. Greater accessibility of learning
3. Cost savings
4. Greater quantity of learning
5. More effective learning
6. Record keeping
7. Better focus on business requirements

Main successes with e-learning

1. Changing attitudes to learning
2. Reducing costs while increasing use
3. Demonstrating training function can add real value
4. Better accessibility to training opportunities
5. Flexibility
6. Supporting installation of new IT
7. Individual development/sense of achievement
8. Ensuring compliance
9. Improvement of specific skills
10. Supporting major sales programme/product launch

ASTD Report

Another piece of research that confirms this trend comes from over the Atlantic in the ASTD State of the Industry Report. Its annual report has a wealth of data on the training industry based on data from 344 US organisations.

The headlines are:

1. Learning increasingly linked to performance
2. E-learning up from 15.4% to 23.6%
3. Annual training expenditure per employee steady at $820
4. Time steady at 26 hours per employee

CIPD report

Another excellent Training and Development trends (CIPD) Survey Report is available free of charge from the CIPD web site.

Trends in training practice

1. Coaching has experienced largest increase in usage over last few years (51% increase)
2. E-learning is a close second (42% increase)
3. 'E-learning seems to be making some significant headway’
4. Formal classroom training has lost momentum (8% increase)
5. Over 75% see shorter course, bite-size delivery and flexible delivery as essential