Why do Russian companies create courses for employees, while foreign ones buy them?

Contents:

• Benefits of purchasing ready-made educational programs
• Reasons for developing content independently despite the advantages of external courses
• Reasons for the popularity of domestic courses compared to foreign ones in Russia
• Ways to improve the efficiency of developing training courses
• The impact of generative AI on the process of creating educational programs

Analysis of the corporate training market in Russia, carried out by the Digital Learning community, annually shows similar results: almost all organizations (97% in 2025) develop training programs for their employees themselves. At the same time, approximately 44% of companies additionally purchase or rent ready-made courses.

Pavel Bezyaev, the community leader, is surprised by the data. It turns out that even in times of forced austerity, when companies are forced to cut training costs, many of them, including small organizations, continue to maintain methodological groups. However, it would be more rational to purchase ready-made training courses from third-party providers rather than invest in their own development.

What is the cause of the current state of the Russian corporate training market? What benefits do companies receive from purchasing ready-made training materials, and why do they continue to develop their own training? How is the introduction of artificial intelligence impacting this situation? These issues became the topic of discussion at the online battle "Ready-made courses vs. development", which was held by the organization Digital Learning under the guidance of the moderator Pavel Bezyaev.

• Valery Leontyev holds the position of CEO at Labmedia, which specializes in both the creation of individual educational programs and the implementation of ready-made courses.
• Ekaterina Zavarina is a specialist in the field of creating original courses at Labmedia.
• Ivan Bulavkin holds the position of head of the distance learning center at PJSC Russian Railways.
• Alexey Milyaev holds the position of project manager, responsible for the integration of artificial intelligence solutions into the educational processes of PJSC MegaFon.

Advantages of purchasing ready-made educational programs

According to the speakers, the purchase of ready-made training courses has a number of Significant advantages compared to creating them from scratch:

• Financial savings are undoubtedly a key aspect. For a company, purchasing a ready-made course turns out to be significantly less expensive than creating its own educational product. Ekaterina Zavarina presented information from Labmedia: the cost of developing a customized course for the company's clients ranges between 400,000 and 700,000 rubles, while a ready-made course from the offered assortment can be purchased starting at 50,000 rubles. Thus, training becomes ten times more economical.
• Reduced time costs. Creating an original training course usually takes several months. Meanwhile, by purchasing a ready-made course, an organization can immediately begin training its employees immediately after signing a contract and making payment.
• Wide applicability. By purchasing a course on a general topic, such as developing soft skills or office software skills, it is possible to implement training for the entire company without additional investment. However, as the discussion participants noted, there are certain aspects that make ready-made content less than universal. We will return to this issue later in the article.
• Access to unique content from experts. Engaging renowned specialists to create an in-house course is often too costly, making this option inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses. At the same time, the catalogs of providers of ready-made educational programs offer materials from renowned domestic and international experts at reasonable prices. Of course, such content will not be exclusive to your company, but is this really so critical?
• The prospect of organized employee development. Ekaterina Zavarina noted that training companies often offer sets of interconnected courses, which allows for a consistent and systematized learning process. Ivan Bulavkin expressed the opinion that this is an excellent way to leverage existing educational content—when courses covering various skills and competencies are combined into a comprehensive catalog. Employees, for example, those who are in the talent pool, can work with a methodologist to create a long-term individual development program from these courses.

Reasons for Independent Content Development Despite the Benefits of External Courses

Experts identified several factors that appear to remain unchanged. Pavel Bezyaev mentioned them in an interview for Skillbox Media a year ago, calling them established concepts in the field of training and development (L&D). It is worth noting that three years ago, these same issues were raised as a result of another analysis of the state of corporate training.

Alexey Milyaev noted that in cases where training is specific and focused on the formation of unique corporate values ​​or is related to internal business processes and products, ready-made solutions on the market will not be able to meet the needs. In such situations, the only way out is to create your own courses and educational programs within the company. The speaker added that approximately 80% of training courses for MegaFon employees fall into this category.

With regard to unique needs, everything is quite clear. However, when it comes to learning soft skills, it may seem logical at first glance to purchase ready-made courses. The topics in this area are fairly general: communication, time management, and teamwork.

The same can be said about courses on safety or office applications. In reality, employees in various industries and fields acquire similar knowledge and skills. Why complicate the process if you can simply buy ready-made material and start using it?

Alexey Milyaev emphasizes that in reality, the situation is more complex. An important aspect is the impact of examples and practical cases based on real-life employee experiences on learning outcomes. Teamwork scenarios, for example, will vary significantly depending on whether employees work in an office, in the food service industry, or on a production site. A lack of relevant examples can significantly hinder students' understanding of the topics discussed, memorizing key points, and subsequently applying them in their work. Therefore, as the speaker noted, even within a single company, a soft skills course may need to be adapted for different audience groups, taking into account the specifics of their professional activities.

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Alexey Milyaev also noted that standardized courses, such as fire safety training, also need to be adapted. "This aspect has its own peculiarities. There are many types of fire extinguishers on the market, but in our office, for example, there are only four types. Naturally, it is important to train employees to use the specific fire extinguisher that will be at hand in the event of a fire," he added.

Uncertainty about the quality of content provided by providers can be one of the factors that motivates independent training course development. To ensure the training is effective, it is necessary to verify the qualifications of the expert who participated in the course creation, as well as to check how well the program is organized. However, all these checks require a significant investment of time.

Ivan Bulavkin said that in Russian Railways has a methodology committee that conducts a thorough, multi-stage review of all training materials received from third-party specialists and vendors. There have been instances where an "expert" provided low-quality materials, which were later discovered to have been written by copywriters.

Correcting even a small error or inaccuracy in a completed course can be quite challenging, as providers typically offer their materials without the source files. In such cases, it is necessary to contact support, which can take up to two weeks before the error is corrected and a new file is sent. Ivan expressed a desire for providers to begin selling courses with source files that can be edited independently.

Besides the quality of the presented material, there is another important criterion, which, according to Alexey Milyaev, plays an equally important role: the degree of trust participants have in the expert conducting the course.

According to the speaker, a lack of trust leads to people losing interest in learning. In his experience, employees are much more willing to participate in training programs if they are led by a familiar colleague or manager who has managed to achieve success in the company from the very bottom, rather than by some external expert.

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Finding, developing, and motivating specialists within an organization are important aspects of achieving success. The first step is identifying talented employees. This can be done by analyzing their professional skills, interests, and potential. Discussions with managers and colleagues can help determine which employees exhibit leadership qualities and a desire for development.

Once experts have been identified, it is necessary to create conditions for their growth. It is important to offer training, participation in seminars, and projects that will allow them to deepen their knowledge and skills. Mentoring and peer exchange can also play a significant role in development.

Motivating such specialists requires an individual approach. It is necessary to consider their goals and aspirations, offering suitable working conditions. Recognition of achievements, opportunities for career advancement, and creating a comfortable work environment will help maintain high levels of engagement and satisfaction.

Therefore, a systematic approach to identifying, developing, and motivating experts within the company contributes not only to the personal growth of employees, but also to the overall success of the entire organization.

Another important reason for choosing in-house development of educational programs instead of purchasing ready-made content is the opportunity to improve the skills of the training and development team.

“This issue is strategic and even value-based. We strive to develop in-house development and increase the expertise of our training team. In particular, this is why we prefer to create educational content ourselves, since the team learns and develops by solving specific problems. They create it themselves, and then learn to do it even faster and more efficiently,” noted Alexey Milyaev.

Indeed, as Pavel Bezyaev noted, the perception of the situation by top managers can differ significantly from the viewpoint of, for example, the head of the training and development department. When the need to reduce costs arises, companies often part with their in-house training departments first. "Many business consultants recommend this approach: why maintain a staff of 20 employees who aren't needed daily when you can outsource training," Pavel adds.

Valery Leontyev emphasized that relying solely on in-house training specialists can be quite risky. If the methodologist responsible for creating a significant course decides to leave the company, this could result in the loss of all original materials. As a result, updating the course will become impossible, and the new methodologist will have to start from scratch. Even if the departing specialist hands over all their work, along with explanations and instructions, Leontyev believes this is unlikely to be an effective solution. A new employee will likely find it easier to create a new course than to try to understand the old materials. When purchasing a ready-made course, according to the expert, this risk is significantly reduced: “Of course, companies can close, but such cases happen much less frequently than changes in employees in organizations.”

Reasons for the popularity of domestic courses compared to

The reasons why Russian companies are creating their own training courses don't fully explain the widespread interest in this process. Unlike Russia, in countries like the United States, according to experts, the picture is completely different: developing in-house training content accounts for only a small portion of corporate training, while the market for ready-made educational programs is significantly developed. Meanwhile, in Western countries, it would seem, the same factors that motivate us to create our own courses should be at work.

Valery Leontyev noted that for business, it doesn't matter how the content was created or how the employees who apply the new skills in their professional work were trained. This emphasizes that the primary goal of corporate training is to effectively address business needs. The question arises: is it true that developing training content in-house is usually more effective for Russian businesses than purchasing ready-made training programs, even if the latter option implies saving resources and time?

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Over the past ten years, technology Corporate training approaches have undergone significant changes. Digital solutions have become the primary focus. Traditional methods such as in-person classes and seminars have given way to online platforms, allowing employees to learn at their own pace and in a comfortable environment. Mobile learning has become an integral part of the educational process, providing access to materials from any device. New formats have also emerged, such as microlearning, where knowledge is conveyed in short, easily digestible chunks, allowing employees to retain information more effectively. Additionally, the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies has become popular, enabling the creation of interactive training scenarios that help employees better master practical skills. Data analytics has also begun to play a significant role in assessing the effectiveness of training programs, allowing companies to tailor their approaches to employee needs.

As a result, corporate training has become more flexible, accessible, and tailored to individual employee needs, which in turn has increased its effectiveness and efficiency.

Alexey Milyaev put forward two explanations for the current situation. The first is that "this is how it happened historically." In some countries, there was initially high demand for ready-made training content, which contributed to the expansion of supply, competition between suppliers, increased variety, and lower prices. This, in turn, again increased demand. At the same time, countries such as Russia emphasized in-house training program development, which allowed them to accumulate significant experience in this area. Consequently, the more organizations create courses in-house, the more efficiently and quickly they do so, and, accordingly, the need to purchase ready-made content decreases.

The second explanation is related to economic aspects. Prices for ready-made soft skills courses offered in foreign markets and in Russia are roughly comparable, but developing your own programs in Russia is significantly less expensive than in the West. In other words, this option is still available to companies in our country, even though purchasing ready-made courses could be cheaper. What is the reason for this situation? Alexey notes that the main factor is the significant difference in salaries between methodologists and instructional designers: in Russia, the average salary of such specialists is approximately 100,000 rubles (or $1,200), while in the US it is closer to $7,000. Therefore, for American companies, creating educational materials using in-house methodologists is six times more expensive than for Russian firms. Consequently, it can be argued that the ability of Russian companies to develop their own educational content is explained by an undervaluation of the work of methodologists. Ivan Bulavkin offered two more explanations. The first is that Western businesses operate within long-established norms and practices, while Russian business is a relatively new phenomenon. Ivan believes that if we look at the Tuckman model, which describes the stages of team development, Russian business is in the normalization phase. At this stage, the rules and norms of interaction are just beginning to emerge. As a result, each company is forced to develop its own business and HR processes, as well as establish regulations and standards. This, of course, impacts employee training and makes it impossible to fully rely on "universal" educational materials. Ivan Bulavkin points out that Russian business operates in an environment of constant change. For example, mandatory courses on occupational health and safety must be reviewed and updated every year to comply with new legislative requirements. According to Bulavkin, a similar situation is observed in other areas of education: "When we develop educational programs, we focus on one thing today, and on another tomorrow. The situation is changing, and we're having to, for example, put customer focus aside and focus on increasing productivity, implementing innovation, or conserving resources. The situation is truly challenging."

Ivan, occupying the position of head of the training department, expresses the opinion that it would be convenient for him to completely abandon the creation of training courses and instead hire a procurement specialist who would search for ready-made training materials. However, this is unlikely in an environment where the main task of the department is not only to support the professional growth of employees, but also to help the company overcome the next crisis.

Ways to improve the efficiency of training course development

Valery Leontyev put forward the idea that it is possible to combine original developments with existing solutions within a single course. This will minimize costs and speed up the implementation of tasks. For example, it is necessary to create an onboarding program for new office employees in the format of an online course. This course includes various thematic modules, and the training and development specialist (T&D) decides which modules should be developed from scratch and for which ready-made content can be used.

The first group includes materials that cover corporate culture, organizational values, unique business processes and product characteristics, as well as internal rules. The second group will include training modules covering security, interpersonal skills, and popular software, among other topics that do not require the involvement of internal specialists. Such content can be purchased from third-party providers and adapted to suit your needs if necessary.

The Impact of Generative AI on the Process of Creating Educational Programs

According to a study conducted by Digital Learning, over the past year, the number of organizations actively integrating artificial intelligence tools into the process of creating training courses for their employees has increased from 3.1% to 13.5%.

Alexey Milyaev and Ivan Bulavkin shared information about how the implementation of artificial intelligence affects the composition of methodological teams. Previously, the training department employed four methodologists, but now, with the help of neural networks, one specialist can independently develop courses for employees.

Alexey Milyaev noted that AI-based tools significantly reduce the time spent on technical tasks, such as generating images or implementing custom mechanics. Previously, integrating drag-and-drop functionality into a course required Alexey to spend a full day writing code, whereas now, thanks to AI, this process takes just a few minutes. Valery Leontyev also expressed similar thoughts, emphasizing that neural networks are unable to optimize aspects of development such as methodological tasks, quality control, and interaction between the client and the contractor. Moreover, she is completely incapable of humor.

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Many Methodologists, as Alexey Milyaev noted, are using specialized tools developed on the basis of publicly available AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, to create courses. These AI assistants are already capable of offering fully generated courses, and although their current results are far from ideal, Alexey is confident that "we are on the verge of AI being able to create courses with a C grade" (note that such examples have already occurred). In this context, he believes, a dilemma will arise: which is preferable—a mediocre course created by AI and tailored to the specific needs of the company, target audience, and context, or a high-quality course manually prepared by a methodologist but not taking these nuances into account. Alexey believes that, in the best-case scenario, providers will begin to develop courses distinguished by high-quality content and well-thought-out methodology. These courses can be adapted to customer needs using artificial intelligence technologies.

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