One of the biggest concerns we have in our IT Project Office is how to balance the need to offer customized technical courses on a timely basis for new hires while getting the classes full enough to warrant the expense.

I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.

We have the exact same problem. We are considering limiting our start dates to a few times per year so that we will be sure to have enough people each time to run the training.

We also considered that but have little control in that arena. CBT courses work for the programming languages etc, but industry specific training becomes OJT at best.

You might also consider developing a Learning Path that would get a new hire started from day 1 without and building up proficiency leading up to a regularly scheduled classroom event that would then be full of students that are already partially proficient.

You can find more information on Learning Paths at E-Learning Engineering or the Learning Paths site.