Skip to main content

Future of L&D - a continuing series

 I recently read a report on the future of l&d and I must I am disappointed. To sum up, here were the broad points. 

Digital learning will grow: 

My take: Yes, but getting access to good content is more and more difficult. Companies want to sell you a billion licences. Employees want learning only at the point where they need it and dont want to waste time searching through dozens on videos, learning and unlearning digital frameworks. So, digital learning will grow - but where is the quality? 

In future I hope, Digital learning is relevant, shorter (minus the preambles), crisp and very very context specific. I personally think companies are better off investing in making their own content especially if the content has to be repeated - standard frameworks, relevant to the values and so on. 

L&D will be key to talent retention:

My take: Not in India. Not in tech. I cant think where else. L&D was never and is never the key to talent retention, except in L&D itself. Companies have tried this by sending people off to expensive programs. and they work (yes, think Stanford, ISB), but almost anything lesser  - people hardly want it. Smart people want money, growth, work on something important for the company etc. Where is L&D here?

L&D will be a priority for employees:

My take: I hope, but I dont think so. Not in places which are hustle driven, which are racing against the clock. Other than that, people want learning at the point where they need it and unless you show them "so what" after the learning, it will never be priority.

Platforms for onboarding: Yes - this one works.

New tech will be impactful: No. I have not seen this work at all. There are so many distractions for the employees - from work to social media - quite impossible for anyone but the most determined employee to learn continuously from any sort of course. Nobody seems to have time.

Companies will spend on L&D: Yes

In summary - many of these predictions are exactly what we saw 10 years earlier. What is new? And in that case, what are we missing? 

Future of L&D seems to be written by the content providers, creators and those who are interested in selling. If you ask employees, any employee their answer will be different. I see usage patterns of people signed up for online course - their data seems rather different from "future of L&D" predicts.

This is from one report - will add more in other posts as I read more reports. 

Disclaimer: Work in progress...


Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...
Post a Comment
Read more