What’s Happening in Learning and Development: A VPS Perspective

VPS recently had the opportunity to see first-hand what is changing with learning and development.

At Learning Technologies 24 and IITec, we saw how these developments will impact our business and yours.

Steve Thompson , Business Development Manager; Darren Scott , Operations Director; and Tony Smith , Content Development Manager, spoke with Louise Brogan on a LinkedIn live webinar about what we learned from these conferences.

Here’s our summary. If you missed the live event, you can catch up on the video on our LinkedIn .

Working with Teams when Things Change Quickly

Operational delivery requirements haven’t fundamentally changed that significantly over the years. People still need to be allocated the correct content, and educators must be scheduled.

However, there have been a significant number of technological changes. This means how we deliver cross-services to our learners and how they receive the training have massively shifted.

In the last ten years, people have been expecting information as and when they want it, at a point of need, rather than attending a course in six to eight weeks.

With these changes, even the most basic learning management systems have evolved. Remote learning has significantly increased, allowing for better engagement between participants, even on remote training courses.?

Integration of Digital Platforms and adaptability during the pandemic

We’ve seen the integration of digital platforms enter into traditional classroom learning and enhancements of digital assets within the learning environment.

There has been the implementation of mobile learning apps and gamification.

The pandemic sped up how we adapt and changed our learning environment.

A number of our clients, through no choice, had to go to remote-style training overnight.?

At VPS, within a 2 week period, we trained around 60 additional trainers, administrators, and customers on how to convert traditional instructor-based training into media suitable for virtual delivery so that critical programmes could continue.

The administration tasks haven’t changed significantly. Using automation with the functionalities within digital learning management systems and scheduling tools has allowed our teams to move from standard, basic administration tasks to more strategic planning and learner care, which enhances the results and the experience for our learners.

Another change has been the shift towards asynchronous learning and people wanting to access learning anytime from any location.

Training delivery effectiveness and efficiency have improved significantly in the last ten years. So, while the fundamentals have remained the same, the technology used to enable those interactions and learning engagements has seen a significant shift.

Managing Teams Across Locations

At VPS, we already had many remote management and communication platforms for our teams before the pandemic which worked in our favour.

We have roughly 250 employees in up to 26 countries worldwide. One of the challenges we faced was how to organise conference calls with our global team.

We were able to use technology to keep in touch with our colleagues across the different locations and time zones.

At VPS, we used tech not only to deliver training, but also the background admin management of the training programmes with our Operations team.

The Key Developments in Modernising Training

The pace of technology development is seen also in the tools we can use to deliver our training. Probably the most significant in terms of its overall effect is the development of Virtual Reality (VR).?

VR has been used in the world of gaming and the Metaverse for a while, and now we’re seeing increasing utilisation in the training environment.

This is facilitated by:

• A significant reduction in the cost of equipment, especially very capable equipment.?
• Early VR was quite difficult to use owing to flicker rates on screens and resolution. Extensive use caused sea sickness and headaches.
• User experience has developed with ultra-high resolution screens, high flicker rates, very good tracking, and almost real-time environmental movement.?

This is a huge change at the entry level, making VR viable and cost-effective as a training solution.

The Role of Gamification

Gamification encourages people to get more involved in their learning and development.

While there’s a general perception that it’s great for millennials and younger, research suggests that it’s good across the generations for increased engagement.

According to Harvard Business Review , gamification can boost employee engagement - https://hbr.org/2024/03/how-gamification-can-boost-employee-engagement

Including gamification in training improves the overall user experience. It provides motivation and fun.

The VPS Advantage

So what, exactly, makes us stand out from the crowd?

We enjoy a wide global footprint and receive a lot of input from customers worldwide.

Customers who have their own networks of customer service personnel and tech people have a huge input into the training we provide. This means we spend a lot of time consulting the market and our individual customers to bring together the most engaging solutions we can design.

Being close to what’s going on and having that broad input gives us the opportunity to really deliver against those expectations.

Our unique selling point is that we spend an enormous amount of time understanding our customers and working with them to provide tried-and-tested solutions that fit into their working lives.

We’re not doing training to you. We’re engaging with iNext Steps

With so many changes in learning and development, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. But, as you can see from this discussion, we’re equipped to help you adapt and offer you new learning solutions. From developing new learning models to offering your team remote and adaptive learning methods, we’re here to help.

Contact us today if you want to transform your company’s training. We would be happy to discuss your needs and how we can help you achieve your training and development objectives.