99% of L&D professionals are worried about the widening skills gap
Learning and Development is the order of the day for 2021 – with more and more companies waking up to the realisation that upskilling is integral to survival. This is hardly surprising when you consider that 99% of L&D professionals believe that a major skills gap will negatively impact their company. This renewed focus on L&D is just one of many knock-on effects of COVID-19, as employers look to invest time and money in essential training resilience for staff.
HRD spoke to Dr Melanie Peacock, one of our Global 100 and speaker at our upcoming L&D Summit, who revealed the emerging trends in online learning.
“As people continue to experience screen time fatigue, it is becoming increasingly important to offer micro learning opportunities,” Dr Peacock told HRD. “Through this people can engage with shorter “bursts” of information, take time away to process their learning and then return on-line to continue their journey of exploration and discovery.”
These shorter bursts, or microlearning, are a great way of embedding necessary knowledge without overwhelming employees. A recent report from LinkedIn found that 49% of people simply don’t have time to learn – try promoting snappy, 30-minute sessions rather than full day courses.
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“Ensuring that on-line learning is suited for multiple on-line platforms is also an evolving trend,” added Dr Peacock. “People will be accessing modules from various devices including but not limited to a desktop, a phone or an iPad. As such, it is critical to review how information appears regardless of the resource used for access.
“While I hope this isn’t a new trend, as this should always have been done, the importance of linking learning opportunities to the organization’s mission and objectives has been magnified. There is a danger of providing numerous on-line learning opportunities (i.e., easy to produce, simple to access) but the requirement to ensure that these align with, and support, a company’s desired outcomes has been especially illuminated over the recent months.”
To learn more on upcoming L&D trends, sign up for HRD’s upcoming L&D Summit here.
