The quickest road to workplace learning success has always been the most beaten one. Or so you’ve been told. Attend a training program, read a book, sit an exam, get a certification. There have been few alternative routes. Until now.
Global educational challenges have given rise to EdTech, and it’s changed how workers learn lifelong skills. Employees attend training programs from home, as well as in the workplace. They access learning materials on smartphones and TV, as well as from books. They take exams on laptops and tablets. They get certifications online.
COVID-19 has exacerbated the need for good EdTech, but the world’s most successful companies have used learning technology long before the pandemic. But what does the future hold? Here are three factors driving EdTech in 2021.
A Growing Need for Digitization
You constantly hear companies talk about the need for ‘digitization’ — upgrading IT infrastructure, automating manual processes, and moving paper documents to the cloud. And this trend extends to skills development, where CEOs automate learning workflows in their organization.
Eighty-seven percent of senior business leaders see digitization as their company’s №1 priority, and it’s easy to see why. Automating paper-based methods brings cost savings, security benefits, and organizational integration. In a lifelong learning context, digitization means the migration toward digital technologies, processes, and learning models that facilitate skills development for employees:
- Platforms that provide CEOs with the framework to deliver lifelong learning opportunities to employees.
- Smartphones, tablets, interactive whiteboards, digital projection screens, and other technologies that expedite lifelong skills development.
- Online content delivery that lets employees learn from home and reduce the need for in-person training.
- Online learning programs that incorporate instructional design.
- Transformation of existing content into a digital learning experience.
- Digital-based learning models that enhance collaboration, competency, communication, and creativity.
- Analytics that track the learning outcomes of employees.
A Realization of EdTech Benefits
Because of cost or complications, only 40 percent of executives have scaled their digital initiatives, so their organizations haven’t achieved full digital transformation. However, an ever-growing number of CEOs are incorporating EdTech into their companies because of the multiple benefits that digitization brings:
- A reduced need for conventional learning methods such as in-person training, which costs organizations, on average, $1,111 per employee.
- The freeing up of the labor and resources typically required to implement traditional training.
- Because EdTech provides access to a bigger pool of learning resources, there’s greater scope for lifeline skills development within organizations.
Expect even more CEOs to realize these benefits in the future.
The Global Workforce
Globalization has transformed the business landscape and brought endless possibilities — opportunities to reach new markets, garner new customers, and acquire top talent. But with these opportunities come some limitations. The global workforce, where employees exist in several time zones, makes lifelong skills development a tricky prospect. How can CEOs expedite learning outcomes when workers are never in the same place at the same time?
EdTech provides a solution. The best digital learning companies provide CEOs with full-stack academic services that benefit a global workforce, from digital enrollment in training programs to personalized learning experiences based on the organization’s budget, requirements, and long-term educational objectives.
As the global workforce becomes even more global, expect even the most-reluctant CEOs to incorporate EdTech solutions into their training models. It’s the only way remote employees can learn.
Final Word
You might think the pandemic has driven the EdTech boom, but there are other factors at play. The demand for digitization, the realization of education technology benefits, and the ever-expanding global workforce have transformed lifelong learning development in organizations. Now more CEOs are working with transformative learning companies to meet the changing educational needs of their employees.
