Sounds familiar
Sounds to me like the same pattern I've seen before. Folks don't want to change the way they do things by learning and adopting the new thing, so they tell the boss that there aren't enough computers, or that the computers are so slow and unreliable that they're unusable.
Once the place is full of shiny new kit, they tell him that they can't do the new thing without being trained on it. Preferably somewhere with nice food and drink, and no exam at the end. This will take time and negotiation to sort out, and can only be offered to a select few. Meanwhile, still, nobody's doing the new thing.
Once the offsite courses get too expensive, an in-house training facility develops and widespread training on the new thing becomes mandatory.
The next step after this is to say that they're just too busy doing the day job for them to be able to keep attending all these pointless courses, and that this is causing workplace stress.
By this time this has been through the union and back, the kit is obviously too old and unreliable again. And, this time, the screens are too small as well.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
