• Course Content: The comprehensiveness and quality of training content determines how the skills of the professional being trained would be shaped.

• Training Experience: It required constant monitoring to check the problem of fly-by-night operators who paint a rosy picture but fail to deliver. While selecting a training company, its credibility and integrity must be the top priority. It must be ensured the institute has rich training experience with quality full-time faculty.

• Cost: In times when the market is yet to stabilize, operators must be careful about the money they are investing in training. A high fee does not necessarily mean quality training. An institute might be costly but may not suit the requirements of an operator and a cheaper firm might provide better service.

• Choice of Training Site: Often training seminars or workshops are conducted in hotels or resorts. Before opting for any such schedule, decide whether the workshop would be more of a holiday or would it really help in skill enhancement. If the group size is large, then big classrooms must be preferred. But, it is also true that technology training cannot be given in closed rooms, it has to be hands-on. Look for trainers who offer real-life simulations and trouble shooting exercises on demo networks and cover the practical side of relevant technologies.

• Instructors’ Profile: A highly-qualified instructor may not necessarily be a good trainer. Experience, specialization, technical expertise and training/communication skills together determine the effectiveness of an instructor. Ensure that the instructor understands the telecommunications technologies and services and is able to explain underlying concepts.

• When to Go for Training: It is completely on the operator to decide when to upgrade its employees. And what ultimately matters is how much money is being spent on training. Training by convention is an ongoing process and should never stop. As technology progresses, training modules should also be prepared simultaneously. Otherwise, in the absence of trained users, the technology becomes redundant. However, as it happened during the economic downturns, financial constraints pushed tech training and consultancy on the back burner. But now the perception is changing and corporates are waking up to telecom training.

• Preference for Practical Training: One of the key components of telecom training is to give practical training on the network or the equipment that has been installed. No matter how good the course material, lack of practical training nullifies all the effort. In case of training being outsourced, enterprises must ensure that proper arrangements are made in the labs for practical training. In case the training is being imparted within the campus of a company, then the trainers must take the students to the installed equipment and give a first-hand experience of the technology.

Many smaller institutes have good trainers but they avoid hands-on training on the new technology. This creates problems later when the professionals work on the equipment and face difficulties.

Then comes the issue of whether full-time training is required or part-time training between working hours is sufficient. It is again a matter of choice for the HR department and the timings can be adjusted such that the business is not hampered. Often, the employees are not free during the normal working hours and, hence, evening sessions are preferred.

Normally, this adjustment is easy in case of in-house and outsourced individual trainers. But many training modules require full time classes and are often conducted outside the premise of the company.

Some educational institutes like Amity have tied up with technology and equipment vendors like Qualcomm to offer refresher or training courses in technologies like CDMA at their respective campuses.