We are seeing the emergence of a global skills revolution - where reskilling employees is a new business priority to help them rapidly adapt to the fast-changing economy. The vast majority of companies globally (87%) are conscious that they have a significant skills gap or will have one within a few years, according to McKinsey & Company. And more than just being aware of this challenge, companies consider it a priority (nearly all respondents to the McKinsey survey ranked closing potential skills gaps as a priority for their organizations, with about a third saying it is in the top three priorities) and want to take action to close it. The latest LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report also confirms this: 64% of training and development professionals say retraining today's workforce to fill skills gaps is a priority. So, if in 2022 one of your goals is to create more upskilling and reskilling opportunities for your employees, that means it is time to identify the existing skills gap. But what exactly is “skill gap,” you ask? As the name implies, it is: “a significant gap between an organization’s skill needs and the current capabilities of its workforce.” It’s the moment at which a company realizes it can no longer advance, keep up with previously set goals or be competitive against other companies unless those skills are learned or improved. It is driven by a combination of factors that create the new world of work including the exponential growth of automation, artificial intelligence technologies, along candidates lacking the necessary skills to interact with these advancements and innovations. The World Economic Forum said it clearly this year: COVID-19 situation worldwide has made the skills gap bigger and the need to close it more urgent. This calls for new strategies at every level to best prepare workers for the post-pandemic economy. Identifying these gaps is critical to building effective and focused training programs. Often, companies launch programs without enough understanding of where the skill gaps exist in their workforce. This just produces poor results. It doesn’t make sense to improve your customer service training when what your employees really need is leadership initiatives, right? There is a multitude of benefits to skill gap analysis and identification, including: Analyzes the organization as a whole. Analyzes existing skills and lets you know if employees can learn these new skills through training or if you may need to hire different workers. Gives you an idea of what training is required first and where you need to spend the most money and time. Keep your company updated and aligned with the new demands of labor markets that are continuously disrupted by technology, demographic change, and the evolving work environment. Motivated employees. Employees are anxious about the growing skills gap, and 46 percent of those surveyed by McKinsey believe their current skills will become irrelevant by 2024. By constantly reskilling and upskilling them, you are feeding their need for growth and improvement.

We have access to virtually unlimited information at our fingertips these days. Sound instructional design takes all of this information that is whizzing by in all directions and creates structure around it. This structure focuses on concepts consistent with how people learn. Traditionally, this occurred through macro learning opportunities like classes, degrees, and classroom training programs. Advancements in technology have allowed two disruptive innovations to emerge: Microlearning and Personalized Learning. These developments are of interest to learning leaders and L&D professionals who aim to equip their employees with the most relevant information while reducing the time, and ultimately money, that is spent on workforce development. At the same time, employees are looking for ways to engage in asynchronous instruction that is tailored to their current knowledge and builds towards complete mastery.

Your company has just upped the training budget and rolled out a new set of eLearning courses. You are upbeat and confident that these courses will help your employees be on top of their game. And then comes this shocker: the surveys reveal that your employees think your courses are not hitting the mark! They report not feeling motivated to take them. Worse, many amongst those who went through the training felt they wasted their precious minutes and hours. Can you fathom what went wrong? After all, you invested so much time, effort, and money into their development. It is natural for you to want to know before you launch a new set of training programs. According to the findings of a study published by CLO report, 45 percent of workers report that the training they go through is not relevant to their job needs. This is a piece of statistic that will make every training manager around the world sit up, shudder, and wonder aloud, “Have we been creating and dishing out content worth hundreds and thousands of dollars for nothing?”

64% of students say the ability to access courses on their phones is a must. Therefore, implementing training programs on mobile devices is no longer an option, now it is a norm. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges in 2021 is to improve the effectiveness of corporate learning programs, and for this, you must be where your students are. It's that simple! Mobile device usage has expanded. But, in 2020, device usage increased significantly due to the coronavirus. If you haven't taken your training programs mobile yet, we urge you to start considering it, as it brings benefits such as: Learners can have access to information at any time, anywhere. More than 70% of employees use search engines to learn what they need for their jobs; will unlock their smartphones 9 times an hour, and watch videos for no longer than 4 minutes. Higher engagement: Its ability to include more interactive and collaborative content, leads to higher participation. Online communities and social media features in mobile learning environments are a great way to keep learners interested and engaged. A learning process that adapts to modern needs. Removes formality. Mobile learning removes the sense of formality attached to education that non-traditional learners find unattractive. Before you start your journey in this world, it's important to know what the challenges come with mobile learning and, of course, how to deal with them. Read on and find out.

The essential responsibility of every Instructional Designer is to ensure a high-quality learning experience. That has not changed in our increasingly multi-device world. The basics, from audience analysis to writing to the objectives, are still important. However, the role of the instructional designer has evolved and now involves a new mindset to adapt and thrive in a multi-device world.

Have you ever wondered why Nokia lost the game to Apple? On the face of it, Nokia seemed to have it all—a slew of phones (from basic phones that just let you make calls to those Lumia models that pack in a mean computing punch), an invincible reputation for churning out quality products (that seemingly indestructible Nokia 3310), and a loyal customer base (if you owned a mobile phone, it had to be a Nokia). And then came Apple, and the rest, as they say, is history. The answer is simple: Nokia lost because it failed to learn. Why do you think search engine companies have come and gone (okay, some like Yahoo and Bing are still hanging around in the shadows) but Google stayed on and is prospering by the day? There is a reason why Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world—it innovates. So what are the lessons for your company? Learn. Grow. Innovate. It is a dog-eat-dog world of business out there. To survive, flourish, and lead the pack, you have to innovate and stay a step ahead of your audience’s desires and preferences. You have to stay on top of change, which, of course, happens at dizzying speed. You need to create and nurture a “culture of learning” in your company.

Elearning has gone from a niche type of teaching for techy subjects to being a preferred, growing and almost necessary way to teach EVERYTHING. Technology is expanding and people’s need and desire to learn on their own time and at their pace is making eLearning the goal for many companies.

Benjamin Franklin once said “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest”, and we think Mr. Franklin got it spot on. Training isn't something that's 'nice' to have in your organization. It's an absolutely vital part of a company's long-term investment and growth strategy. This seems like a simple point, and it's something that nearly all companies, and L&D managers alike, will agree with. But do companies provide enough training? And what does current research say about the state of corporate training and eLearning? In this post, we look at ten key statistics, and what they mean for your company's future.