The digital revolution involves an evolution of business models and of each function within the company. The real challenge for companies today is to accompany the evolution of skills, and in particular the digital skills of employees. However, too often, training in digital technology and the digital modalities of training are confused with one another.
Jean Baptiste Gouin, founder and president of talenco, enlightens us on the latest trends in learning in the age of digitalization.
In the age of Digital, is in-person training still useful?
JB.Gouin: In this period of profound change, employees need more than ever strong support. Digital requires the acquisition of new attitudes, new business techniques and, undoubtedly the most difficult, the abandonment of old practices. These upheavals are too impactful to leave employees alone in the face of this challenge. It is essential to accompany them. To do this, the traditional training sessions in large groups, such as the Management seminar or the Digital Days, They allow, in the first instance, to give a strong common impetus and to create a collective dynamic.
In a second stage, the «traditional» face-to-face training programs, with groups of about ten people, remain the best way for everyone to become professionally competent in their respective fields.
Individual support is also, of course, very useful. The reverse mentoring It is even perceived as a particularly innovative and effective modality.
What are the best learning methods to develop digital skills?
We always learn alone but never without others. The best learning is the one that allows interactions between learners: face-to-face, virtual classroom, social learning. To develop their digital skills, the learning levers are fundamentally not different from those of other subjects. However, the subject of digital requires being innovative in the way of delivery (live surveys, demonstrations of connected objects…) or enriching their learning materials with digital modalities. MOOCs* or SPOCs* are also an interesting channel for awareness-raising purposes.
In-person training facilitates individual support, practical application, and provides an immediate response to questions that may arise during the training. This small-group training modality allows participants to be more involved, stimulated, and reassured in their learning process. It also enables the exchange and interaction of ideas, enriching their own experiences and best practices by comparing them with those of their peers. Finally, in-person training is a fantastic opportunity to create a learning community that can then continue to interact on digital platforms.
The community is therefore a source of learning?
Yes. What characterizes a community is primarily sharing a common interest, a common vision, and creating an emotional bond between the participants. This is easier to instigate during in-person events than through 100% remote modalities. Thus, the bonds created can last and facilitate learning over time for sharing on best practices, feedback, giving advice, and helping each other on a platform like an CSR (Social Network of Enterprise).
At talenco, we have implemented these learning communities initiatives that are mainly based on our clients' platforms.
What should we think about Digital Learning in training methods?
Training in Digital does not mean training exclusively in Digital. It is essential to be clear about one’s objectives and to ensure that the pedagogical methods used are fully effective and appropriate. Digital Learning It is particularly effective for communication and pre-sensitization goals.
We must remain vigilant regarding the support we choose. MOOCs or SPOC*, for example, can be a good way to become professionally trained remotely, but not everyone is comfortable with this mode of learning. The proof is that the completion rate for MOOCs is only 10%. It is therefore preferable to leave the choice to the employee of the training channel that suits them best.
Are we therefore heading towards a customization of the training system?
The trend is not to do things Blended Learning At all costs. It is necessary to hold the employee accountable during their learning process and to allow them to choose the modalities that seem most appropriate to them. In this regard, the expectations of learners are the same as their requirements as consumers: they want to be autonomous. The new learner increasingly perceives the imposed paths as unfair. They also need immediacy. How can a company still offer a skills development solution 18 months after a need has been expressed? Improving the « time to competency » is a key issue for Talent Development teams. The collaborator, for his part, must take responsibility in developing his skills.
We are therefore entering the era of personalization and the multi-channel nature of learning! All of this will constitute the new «learner experience».
*MOOC Massive Online Open Course: these are Online courses open to everyone, A free online training course. A MOOC is a course that usually lasts several weeks. It provides educational content (courses, videos, quizzes) and concludes with the issuance of a certificate.
– SPOC Small private online course: one online courses in a small group with a number of’access voluntarily limited. The SPOC is really a private training course; it more closely resembles the e-learning courses that have been available online for several years.
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