This factsheet was last updated in February 2012.
What are costing and benchmarking in relation to learning and development?
The costing of learning and development is based on a calculation of the direct financial costs incurred (for example course fees), sometimes together with an assessment or estimate of the indirect costs involved (such as management time spent on coaching or mentoring, or employee time participating in learning or training).
The benchmarking of learning and development involves comparisons and rankings of various measures, or metrics, associated with learning and training provision - typically including the financial costs incurred but also other aspects that may be measured (such as days of training per employee each year or the benefits/outputs gained as a result of learning interventions).