Training is evolving and developing right before our eyes thanks to Covid-19 which has seen countries lock down completely and institute quarantine policies.
According to Vanessa Whitehead, founder and director of No Ordinary Corporation (NOC), while digital learning has been on the increase for the past five years, Covid-19 has given the industry the push it needed to pivot training courses online in order to continue training and adding value to clients.NOC has launched a new online training platform which provides companies with a digital learning and content creation platform – critical for companies and training providers.
“The user experience needs to be quick, easy to use, available online and off line 24 hours a day, customisable, and able to be switched across devices,” explains Whitehead.She says innovation in alternative training methods remains the biggest opportunity for the sector.
“Covid-19 has resulted in a significant decrease in classroom-based training. While this is understandable, the need for training has not decreased. Therefore, the opportunity lies in finding new ways to continue to deliver learning opportunities to individuals. Whether it be online-facilitated training (think Zoom, MS Teams), online coaching and/or mentoring, or e-learning platforms, organisations that are not capitalising on these opportunities will be left behind.”
According to Whitehead, it remains challenging to balance most organisations’ decreased training budgets in the face of the economic crisis with the country’s regulatory skills development targets. “This has required finding innovative ways to implement skills development initiatives that add value, are aligned to skills development targets, and are financially conservative enough to justify.” Whitehead says online learning is becoming more agile and f lexible enough to cater for both macro and micro learning.
“Content has to be dynamic and the platform customisable, easy to use, and quick to change and update content.”Commenting on the company’s new product, Whitehead says it was created to be scalable, supported, and have robust reporting with built-in artificial intelligence to provide insight into what’s working and what’s not.
“Training platforms now need to be accessible and offer short, sharp bursts of learning carried in the palm of learners’ hands. Our platform is designed specifically with these criteria in mind and is customisable to suit any specific requirements.”She says there is a lot of excitement about the new world of training that is unfolding amidst the pandemic.“We believe that online learning platforms will deliver more relevant, timeous, and topical learning that will be driven by the learner requirements and needs which will result in increased usage and adoption rates.