Theories alone don’t drive change. You have to put them into practice to achieve results. This is one reason why corporations today are focusing on skills development alongside gaining knowledge. With the upsurge in skills gaps in the rapidly evolving business world, skills-based training has become a priority for organizations. Organizations must ride the digital wave and unleash the potential of digital learning to impart impactful skills-based training. Read on to learn how digital learning can plug skills gaps at work and explore tips to leverage digital learning solutions for impactful skills-based training.
What is Skills-based Training?
Skills-based training focuses on building skills to help employees perform their tasks better and faster. It is broadly classified into two categories — upskilling and reskilling. Skills-based training is aimed at helping employees learn new skills to take up new tasks (reskilling) and to help keep them abreast of the latest trends and technologies in their domain to stay competitive (upskilling). Organizations must perform skills gap analyses to chart effective training programs that deliver desired results. Skills-based training can be incredibly useful, as it is learner-centric and enables real-world application of learning while improving knowledge retention.
How Can Digital Learning Plug Skills Gaps at Work?
Skills-based training is crucial to building a future-ready workforce. But what would be the ideal delivery approach? The answer is digital learning. Digital learning is a strategic approach that can make your skills-based training impactful. Under the umbrella of digital learning fall various learning formats that can be mixed and matched per your business and learner needs. eLearning, virtual instructor-led training, microlearning and simulations are digital learning formats that can enliven your skills training program. Digital learning is a cost-effective approach that offers flexibility by allowing multimodal delivery ensuring memorable learning experiences.
4 Tips to Deploy Digital Learning Solutions for Impactful Skills-Based Training
1. Microlearning for Macro Results
Microlearning is the talk of the town when it comes to corporate training. And rightly so! The present world is fast and furious, so modern learners need quick solutions to their work challenges. Microlearning offers quick learning bites that can be accessed anywhere, anytime and on any device.
Let’s see how it helps in imparting skills-based training. Pop quizzes can be extremely handy to gauge learner progress during an eLearning course. They can also be integrated into other online training courses to enable frequent knowledge checks. Microlearning videos are fantastic tools to give demos for critical skills like operating a piece of complicated machinery or highlighting the key steps of making a meaningful sales pitch. You can also plan to create a library of a variety of microlearning assets to offer just-in-time learning to your learners. Bite-sized video clips, webinar clips and short microlearning modules can be a part of the library for easy access of learners in the moment of need.
2. Tap Into the Power of Collaborative Learning
Conduct virtual instructor-led training (VILT) sessions to deliver crucial concepts and facilitate hands-on application of learning by engaging learners in breakout room activities. That way, your employees can not only learn and practice skills but also have the luxury of clarifying their doubts with peer learners and the facilitator.
Digital learners use social media to socialize with friends and follow subject matter experts to resolve their work-related queries. Considering their inclination towards social media, you can also launch online discussion forums where learners can discuss and share ideas and opinions to learn from each other. Building social media groups on various platforms is another fantastic way to encourage learners to share knowledge in a team setting.
3. Boost Critical Thinking Through Scenario-Based Learning
Skills-based training is all about offering an opportunity to practice learning. Scenario-based eLearning courses can mimic real-life work scenarios and offer ample opportunities for learners to hone their critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Branching scenarios encourage learners to think through various real-life work scenarios and come up with the most viable solution. Say you want to teach skills pertaining to handling customer grievances to your customer care executives or sales reps. Customer objections will vary, and naturally, solutions to those queries will also vary. Branching scenarios with multiple solutions can be a wonderful way to help learners learn how to tackle different customers and satiate varying customer needs.
4. Create Practical Learning Experiences With Simulations
Skills-based training is all about learning by doing. And simulations offer learners the ability to do just that. “Watch-try-do” simulations are extremely beneficial to training employees in skills that need hands-on practice for performing day-to-day tasks. For instance, if you want to train your employees to use newly launched software, simulations are a great way to help employees learn by doing rather than going through hefty user manuals or boring PDFs.
With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in the L&D space, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) simulations are creating a buzz. AR- and VR-based simulations can transport learners to the actual work environment and offer an immersive learning experience. These simulations are extremely beneficial to offer skills training to perform high-risk critical tasks.
Conclusion
Corporations are spending a fortune to upskill and reskill their employees to keep up with the pace of the dynamic business world. Digital learning is the way forward to ensure effective and continual skills-based training. Are you ready to embark on a journey to creating a smooth skills-based training strategy for your learners, boosting their performance and enhancing productivity to level up your business ROI?
