Learning Design Consultancy & Targeted Training
Why Targeted Training?
There are organisations across Australia that still struggle with the skill development of their people. Some consider it too demanding or costly to provide training while others simply don’t know where to start. The irony of course is that organisations need to regularly develop and upskill their people competencies if they are to succeed. Targeted training also helps people to work more collaboratively to fulfil business goals and to decrease employee turnover. Targeted learning and development and training are essential for organisations to be profitable and or gain competitive advantage. With this in mind let’s look at how a learning design consultancy can support targeted training for your organisation or team.
What is the purpose of targeted training?
Targeted training helps managers and leaders leverage a blend of formal and informal learning to develop the skills and knowledge gaps of their people. When the right training programs are in place organisations can support their people and equip them to perform.
How do you uncover skill and knowledge gaps to focus your learning design?
A ‘skills inventory’ is a great starting point for assessing your training needs. Put simply, it’s a checklist of the experience, professional skills and qualifications of your team or organisation. Typically, information is gathered by a combination of skills assessments conducted by HR or line manager and or self-assessments. These assessments then help you make informed decisions about your learning and training needs from the gaps identified. Once skills inventories are completed, a learning design consultancy can be briefed to help if you don’t have internal resources. They will help you develop a comprehensive learning strategy, training programs and learning resources to address skills and knowledge gaps.
Why explain the benefits of the training to your team?
Your people must then understand the benefits of any targeted training and learning they undertake. For them to become fully engaged and committed to the learning programs they must undertake, your people first need to understand in what ways training will help them to do their jobs more efficiently or effectively. Your role is to clearly explain the planned outcomes of the training. This helps people engage with their learning and any subsequent development rather than question or perhaps reject, if the benefits are unclear. Good learning designers take into consideration both individual learning and organisational performance needs when explaining the benefits of training. This helps to overcome resistance to change and set up targeted training programs for success.
Why organisation goals are important when creating objectives for targeted training?
It is vital for organisations to define their purpose plus the goals they intend to achieve. Once defined, teams and individuals can plan their immediate and longer-term objectives to support the goals. A learning designer can then assist you create a targeted training plan to meet immediate and longer-term objectives. Before they do so, they will consult with you to develop a sound understanding of your organisation as well as research trends in your sector to help you design the best possible targeted training strategy.
Why keep learning needs of your people in mind?
Everyone in your organisation brings their unique experiences, skills and learning styles and needs to work. Their differences come in many forms, such as their:
- Previous work and organisational culture experience
- Geographical location, e.g. urban, regional, country
- Cultural background and expectations
- Time or resource constraints
- Knowledge and skills base, previous training and education (or lack thereof)
- Language differences or barriers
- Learning preferences e.g. active, theoretical, pragmatic, reflective
- Access to and proficiency with technology
An learning design consultancy will take all this into consideration to ensure a variety learning needs are catered for, providing flexible options and learning solutions that deliver desired outcomes.
Why establish a training timetable?
Once your targeted training program is developed a training timetable can be established. The timetable details all training you intend implementing over a year, or smaller periods like six months or even a month. The level of detail on your timetable can be determined based on the size of your organisation and the needs of your people. A learning design consultancy will also accommodate the work capacity or schedules of your people to remove barriers to completing learning to ensure a positive experience for everyone.
How can we help you?
Whether you are seeking to increase organisational productivity or simply the performance of some people in your team, a learning design consultancy in Australia could be help you need. We carefully consider the learning needs of our clients. No matter the size of your organisation we can tailor a solution to your needs and budget.
