Online courses, customized seminars, academic microprograms… Now companies have access to a broader range of solutions for training their employees. Here is an overview of recent trends.
Customized Solutions
Companies persistently focus on the ongoing training of their employees, but seek efficiency and cost reduction. In today’s context where workers must continuously adapt to technological changes, businesses opt for customized training over systematic mass coaching to equip employees with timely tools.
Short term
Short and intensive courses are becoming increasingly popular. For example, organizations prefer seminars that last two or three days rather than weekly trainings that last several months.
Certificates and microprograms
In this context, an employee seeking additional training at the college or university level will be guided towards achieving a certificate that is shorter and focused on the operational side. Microprograms are increasingly common and even preferred by workers who seek additional training. These programs target the bulk of workers’ needs and enable them to receive educational certificates quickly and worth on average half of a certificate’s credits.
Intergenerational management
Learning can also be done internally, between teammates. Companies rely on the spread of knowledge between employees, communication that is not directed at one group but is shared equitably. To do this, employers provide structures that promote mutual trade of information between generations, which will allow newcomers to share their knowledge of the latest technologies while experienced workers provide them with the knowledge they have accumulated over the years.
Blended learning
Technology takes an important place in contemporary learning, but we rely less on an online-only education. A mixed approach is usually favoured, which could combine both classroom and online training, phone conversations or chats with a teacher as a resource.
MOOC (Massive open online course)
These courses, usually free, are open online platforms where a teacher will test skills within a degree, or simply a place of exchange that allows individuals to test their skills, broaden them or for self-assessment. It is a growing trend in multiple areas, including in Quebec (for example, at HEC Montreal, the EDUlib platform, at Laval University and at TÉLUQ).