According to a Gallup study, learning and growth opportunities are the top considerations for millennials in a job, and 69% of non-millennial workers say these factors are essential to them.
In case you haven’t noticed, we said learning, not training. There’s a big difference between the two. Many organizations don’t recognize this and subsequently they fail to keep pace with the rapidly evolving workplace culture.
Training is the action of teaching individuals a specific new skill. It is about ensuring that they have the knowledge and ability required to operate a machine, device, software application, etc. In simple terms, training is about teaching a specific process with the goal of achieving a specific, definable result. It generally takes place at a specific time and generally has a beginning and an end.
Unlike training, learning has no end. It’s a constant process and doesn’t require you to take time out to complete it. Instead, it’s part of your life that happens ceaselessly. It takes place in a day-to-day process and may or may not be associated with your work life. As Albert Einstein once said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
A person could go through training that teaches them about how to handle administrative roles. Once their training is complete, they will apply their knowledge and continue to learn new ways to improve and build better or faster processes. As they move forward, they will gain new knowledge. There is no point at which their learning will ever be complete.
Learning is a constant process that will stay with you throughout your life.
As the workforce continues to require more and as technology dictates streamlined processes, companies need to shift their focus from training and to learning. This allows them to develop a team that are not only skilled but can deal with the variety of challenges that arise in different situations.
Today most trainers own the entire training program. Yes, they ask for feedback or they put a poll question forward but ultimately, they own giving out information. Building a virtual learning program basically flips that to the team reviewing information and giving the trainer what they understand or what they would do in given situations. Albert Einstein also said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”
A virtual learning program offers everyone the opportunity to own their learning. Instead of the trainer giving information they think the participants need, they provide the group with all types of materials during a virtual session and then let the participants review that information in the way each of them learn. Being able to review information and put different pieces together to understand concepts or processes is what prepares the workforce to adequately perform their job.
Put them in small groups where materials are customized to a particular case or event and let them work through the project while the trainer is overseeing and giving advice to each team. Swap out or add new material as each team is solving the challenges in their group. The key is the learners are doing the work and the trainers are producers and coaches.
Technology has always dictated what trainers could do…easily. With new virtual solutions, such as Jigsaw Interactive, the technology has been enhanced to let the trainer dictate what they want to do so they are no longer at the mercy of the technology.
If learning is doing, then Jigsaw Interactive is the solution to meet your virtual learning programs.
A virtual learning program is more powerful than a virtual training program and offers better results because your entire team is invested in discovery and resolutions.
