Excellence Gateway
This is the lead in the recent Alliance of Sector Skills Council's latest ad campaign. And it is a good question to think about. Skills are high profile at the moment - the focus on train to gain, apprenticeships and diplomas are keeping the skills agenda in the public domain but as providers we need to be able and ready to respond in new ways that are suitable for harsh times.
Employer responsiveness is a tough ask in tough economic climates. And it is just as much a concern for those staff in the learning and development teams of businesses as it is for college principals and work based learning CEOs.
Towards Maturity has just released new research from over 300 organisations (across a wide range of industries) to find out how learning and development professionals are adjusting to new demands from staff and colleagues. The series of Driving Business Benefit reports are available to download for free and provide useful insights for providers looking to engage employers in this economic climate.
The study is the third in a research series over the past four years looking at trends in the use of learning technologies in the workplace. We now have data on the experiences of over 700 organisations who have invested in learning technologies1 in the workplace. One of the main research themes over the years has been to look beyond the hype to understand why some organisations are more successful than others and what contributes to their success. We also investigated trends in services and technologies.
The bad news is that a significant number of employers are seeing their overall learning budgets decreasing (this trend is backed up by other research that also highlights that the travel budget is also dropping like a stone!). But the good news is that businesses are not necessarily looking to cut skills provision as a result.
We found that three out of five businesses expect to increase the allocation of their budget to learning technologies moving into 2009. However, they are demanding much more from their investment.
Driving Business Benefit reflected a buoyant confidence in the opportunities that learning technologies could bring in a downturn. 56% of employers in our study believed that the credit crunch provided them the opportunity to deliver more with less. But the report also highlights that the benefits will not just drop into their laps. Employers need to work harder than ever to make the benefits a reality and that is where good providers can really help.
Over the past two years, we have looked at what is driving organisations to invest in learning technologies. In 2007 the top drivers for investment were mainly linked to improving the delivery of learning and development - the top four were to improve flexibility and access to learning (reported by just under 80% of the group) and to reduce cost and improve administration (by about 50% of the group).
Organisations are not just looking for improvements in learning and development. Now more than ever, they are looking to really add value to their business and to their staff.
Our sector analysis report2 looked more closely at the drivers and implementation strategies for seven significant industry groups from both public and private sectors (including education). And there were some interesting differences in the motivation behind their ongoing investment in learning technologies.
The top three drivers behind investment for education were to improve flexibility of delivery, to help retain good staff and to develop a more qualified work force.
On the other hand, the top three drivers for other sectors differed:
Having great expectations does not necessarily mean that organisations are realising the benefits of their investment. The numbers reporting actual benefits within their organisation was encouraging. The most frequently reported benefits were flexibility and accessibility (good news since that is what we were aiming for two years ago) but there is some encouraging evidence for others looking to support their business case:
We found that as the businesses increased in their maturity in using learning technologies, they consistently reported an increase in business benefits, staff benefits and engagement. For example when comparing those established in their use vs those who were more sporadic we see that established users are:
Given that less than 40% of organisations in this study were established, there is room for improvement for many.
71% of our participants say that their internal training teams are willing to embrace new ways of working so that is the good news! But there are still barriers to overcome. External factors such as costs and the lack of relevant content are less of a barrier to e-learning implementation now than in 2007.
However, 'past poor experience of e-learning' has increased as a barrier and in fact the top three barriers were all people issues - reluctance by staff to adopt new technologies came in at number one. But worryingly this was closely followed by two barriers that many have no real excuse for - a 'lack of knowledge about its potential use and implementation' and the 'lack of skills amongst staff to implement and manage e-learning'.
Only 45% agreed that they trained their trainers in how to implement blended learning solutions and only 43% agreed that their face to face training courses actively exploited the knowledge that a learner gained in e-learning. Less than a third agreed that they set measurable targets for learning and e-learning. All of these factors and many more were found to influence the success of e-learning in the workplace.
We know that employers in the best of times are difficult to engage - research that explored the employer's perceptions of employer engagement within FE and SKills highlighted a range of employer demands that are even more relevant today and can be effectively enhanced by good use of technology:
The LSIS advice on Supporting good practice in employer responsiveness: a guide to quality improvement also flags a number of recommendations:
The Driving Business Benefits report provides in depth coverage about how learning and development departments are using learning technologies to help them achieve the same goals.
However the research shows that some businesses are achieving more success than others. Many have the desire to adapt learning provision for these tough economic climates but are struggling. They need outside support and are looking for innovative skills solutions from innovative providers to help them. Now is an ideal time to get involved. Tools such as Generator - the technology improvement leadership tool for FE and Skills launched in March 2009 - can help providers identify how to move forward. Driving Business Benefits research provides a unique insight into the dramatically shifting world of skills delivery in the workplace, providing the opportunity and inspiration for providers looking to step up to the challenge.
The Driving Business Benefit Annex: Sector Perspectives looks at these themes from the perspectives of seven diffferent sectors, including education.
Both can be downloaded for free at www.towardsmaturity.org
Source: Learning and Skills Improvement Service
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/197236.
