Publisher of Training Magazine
Just a quick note for future reference.
VNU Learning publishes
Training Magazine and
Creative Training Techniques. These are a couple of publications that I
must get my hands on subscriptions somehow (they're kind of expensive).
What can we expect?
It’s natural, anyone who is spending a great amount of time, effort and money to pursue higher education wants to know whether or not that education is going to pay off, career-wise in the end. Considering the O*Net and the Occupational Outlook Handbook (published by the US Department of Labor) lump IDD professionals in with Instructional Media Specialists and several other positions, the data from these databases can be quite skewed. Unless you’re a member of one of the major professional organizations (which, of course, you should be eventually—but it can be quite pricey for a student in limited income), its difficult to find stats specifically for the job and salary outlook for IDD.
Training Magazine’s 2005 Salary Survey (published in their October 2005 issue) can give us “IDDers” an idea, however, of what to expect. In the survey, the editors found that the job outlook for training professionals overall was mixed. “For every salary that went up, another went down,” writer Holly Dolezalek admits. She reported that the average salary of the 774 participants was $76, 365, up about 3% over the previous year. Salaries grew most in the Pacific region in 2005, but Bill Coleman, VP of compensation at Salary.com believes that this may be simply a matter of the region being slow the year before and then making up the difference in 2005.
The most radical industry increase came in military/government. Salaries in this area increased an incredible 20% while the number of respondents in the category was up 21%. Dolezalek cites the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as new expanded government agencies in the business of national security as probable causes.
As far as salary equaling experience, those with the most experience (13+ years) stayed about the same. Newer IDDers, those in the 4-7 and 8-12 year categories, rose by 5% and 7% respectively. Coleman reasons that this may be because those with the highest salaries (people with the most experience) may be retiring and thus bumping what would be a rate of increase back downward for that category.
Bonuses are another factor. According to the survey, of those who received bonuses, the amount jumped considerably since 2004, from $7,818 to $10,109. Coleman says that bonuses have been steadily increasing overall for the last ten years which is a sign of an improving economy.
However, the future may not be as bright as it at first appears. Dolezalek points out that while, yes, there are signs of a sustained recovery in the economy, it may be offset by other factors. She sites the Bureau of Labor Statistics as saying that the rate of growth in the U. S. work force is slowing and in the next two decades, it may nearly stop. This means less spending for training and training experts. She ends with “none of us can afford to rely on optimistic projections. It’s always important to keep improving your skills and to know your prospects.”
