[forgottenpass]

Should it really though? As developers/testers/whatever position we occupy in the tech space, most of us are pretty good at picking up new languages/technologies/frameworks/tools etc. in a pretty short amount of time.

Yes, it should exist. You've argued against whatever image of formalized training you seem to have a problem with, but provided a decent argument training (in general) should be provided. If developers are expected of to continually learn new things, and it can be done in a short amount of time, it is all the more reasonable for the business to treat that as training and budget time and money for it as such.

The types of gaining knowledge that you acknowledge in your post are "a few formalized training courses every year" and "good communication skills and enjoy sharing knowledge". You seem to be ignoring the large band of training that exist between those two. Which is also the where most ongoing learning happens.

Good communication skills and "collaborative time" allocated with percentages pulled from your rear is a fine (if slow) way to get people up to speed with the tech used at the office. But only serves to poorly normalize knowledge across the office.