Organisations around the world have been investing a large part of their resources in employee training and development for years. Snell and Bohlander in their book (2006: 150) refer to the training magazine industry rolling report (2004) which states that in 2004, US companies spent more than $50 billion on training and developing their personal. According to Michael Armstrong (1993: 508), “training is the systematic development of knowledge, skills and attitudes by an individual to adequately perform a given task or job”. The main purpose of training is to improve the performance of the organization by improving the performance of its employees (Currie 1997). Training and development of employees essentially means providing them with knowledge and skills that can increase organizational performance. The goal is to make their work more efficient and allow them to adapt to future trends or become multitaskers. Training is primarily done for a specific job or task and is short-term while development is long-term and includes general operations. Training is also more technical, unlike development, which is more theoretical (Currie 1997). Many for-profit organizations have as their ultimate goal increased productivity which then translates into greater profitability. With this in mind and despite the benefits they bring to organizations, many are still reluctant to invest in this endeavor (Gratton 2007). The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of training and development for both businesses and employees and explain why some organizations and individuals are reluctant to invest in training. As already mentioned, employee training and development brings numerous benefits to both the company and its employees. One of his... half of paper......vol. 45, n.2, pp. 214-238.Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development, 5th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.Rynes, S. L., & Connerley, M. L. (2005). Applicants' reactions to alternative selection procedures, Journal of Business and Psychology. vol. 7, no.3Schuler, R.S., & Jackson, S.E. (2007). Strategic Human Resource Management, 2nd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.Snell, S., & Bohlander, G. (2007). Human resources management. Mason: Thomson Higher Education.Sparrow, P. (2009). Handbook of international human resource management: integrating people, processes and context. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Swart, J., Mann, C., Brown, S., & Price, A. (2005). Human resources development. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth HeinemannTaylor, D. (1989) 'Training', in C. Molander (ed.) Human Resource Management, Lund: Chartwell-Bratt Ltd, pp.143-169.