Areyou willing to acquire new skills (or enhance them)? Do you dedicate the time?How do you learn to get results?
Iwould want to take the opportunity to share with you our insights whiledesigning and launching our new skills acquisition collection, with theobjective of describing some of the challenges that we will need to overcome ashumans soon.
Learning today
Today’slearners are far more demanding than those in the past. They want to enjoy thelearning experience and build their skills in a flexible and dynamic way thatfits with their busy lifestyles. Good training should also be accessibleanytime and promote interactions with people, as we learn more when we sharewith others, give and get feedback.
Thefocus of many training programmes in the past has progressed from the gainingof knowledge, to practice, to application. We wanted now to go a step furtherby triggering direct transfer to the workplace and promoting human interactionvia a digital platform; a programme of learning transfer that brings tangibleresults.
Leadersneed to prepare their people for a future that is uncertain. Their biggest challengeis often dealing with lack of commitment and the retention of talent who wantto progress their careers.
Indeed,the world of work is changing rapidly, yet many people are unprepared for thechallenges ahead. That’s why the ability to adapt and solve problems, alongwith the other skills such as communication and creativity, will be key tofuture success.
With demand for soft skills on the rise, we created the #UP Skills Acquisition Collection as a vehicle to engage people who want to improve the human touch.
Therewill always be demand for niche skills like programming intelligence. The restof us will need to find ways to show our strengths and prove that we can addvalue.
Soft skills for the future
ArtificialIntelligence is having a huge impact on the modern workforce, so we will allneed to redefine our roles as AI becomes pivotal to what we do. This willrequire boosting those soft skills that AI simply cannot replicate.
Thisis my top 5 selection of soft skills that will add value to our employers andclients:
- Problem Solving
Decision-making skills and creativity are key to analysing problems and providing a solution.
- Communication
The ability to persuade and influence will set you apart from the competition, as will the ability to effectively communicate in a range of new platforms.
- Continuous Learning (aka Learn to Learn)
We must always be aware of our obsolescence and take steps to keep our skills up-to-date. Adapting to change and being able to integrate new knowledge is therefore crucial.
- Understanding Consumerism
Developing successful customer relationships is no longer the sole responsibility of the sales & marketing departments – we are all responsible.
- Ethical Behaviour
Society is challenged to adhere to principle-based behaviours, along with an awareness of environmental sustainability and mental health
How we created a new way with #UP
The#UP programme offers a unique approach to help people build these soft skills;one that motivates continuous development whilst being relevant to theprofessional role of the participant. It includes:
- A choice of learning modules that personalise the process.
- An individual development programme that focuses on implementation from day one.
- Tuition from a personal coach.
- Guidance for line managers, mentors or learning buddies on how to support their team and create practical opportunities for growth.
Weoften hear that learning should be easy, but learning needs some effort: wedon’t learn in the comfort zone! That’s why I like that with this collection wefocus on achieving tangible results, asking participants to show evidence thatthey have applied the new skills and attained those results.
Resultsin the workplace require an investment of time, which is one of the mostvaluable resources we have. We make good use of that time, ensuring people takeonly as long they need to acquire the new skill, so the learning is synchronouswith practising on the job.
A promising start
Thelearning content has been designed to engage, making it clear to the learnerexactly how they can transfer their skills to the workplace. We focus on makingthe learning experience accessible, using a conversational approach andenabling the learner to find relevant content easily. What’s more, they get thehuman support they need, when they need it.
Beforethe launch, our teams trialled the #UP Skills Acquisition Collection withparticipants from several companies and countries. The feedback has been verypositive. They love the experience and enjoy how the training encouragesday-to-day practice through guided opportunities to transfer learning to theirworkplace:
Aswe roll out the new collection, our teams will keep researching, collecting LXfeedback and measuring results. We will continuously enhance the learningjourney, introducing extra features that can positively impact the overallexperience.
We’recertainly excited about what the future holds for #UP and how it will inspireothers to make learning more practical and effective.
To learn more about the #UP Skills Acquisition Collection, visit our website here.
