Tertiary Education New Zealand » custom

DIY – Use e-learning courses to address your skill shortages

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:00:16 +0000

Once again we hear the familiar cry of industry lamenting the “skill shortage” that seems to be a constant burden for many New Zealand employers. TVNZ Business reported on Monday:

A recruitment specialist says skills shortages in the job market are expected to again come to the fore next year.

Recruitment company Hays has issued a report on its expectations for 2010.

Managing director Jason Walker says as New Zealand emerges from the economic downturn, the challenge for talent will again rear its head.

He says financial and commercial analysts, and technical IT specialists will be in particular demand.

Walker says employers are looking for experienced workers who have a background in the New Zealand marketplace.

He says many employers are sensing a new optimism in the market and are planning for recruitment in 2010.

(http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/skills-shortages-expected-in-2010-3319505)

Now, more than ever, industry has an opportunity to develop the people they already have in a way that is cost effective, and highly customised. But e-learning also provides an ideal means of addressing specific skill shortages when you do not already have potential candidates on hand

Many skill shortages, both short and long term, are notoriously difficult to address. One of the often cited reasons for this is a lack of interest from potential candidates. This is often not the problem in of itself. Instead it creates a problem for traditional education and training models which require a certain ‘critical mass’ before programmes are sustainable under existing funding mechanisms.

If an industry requires candidates for training and there are a dozen scattered throughout the country, this is not going to be sufficient for any conventional ‘face-to-face’ delivery to be financially viable – a key consideration for ALL education organisations including not-for-profits.

Using an e-learning model for delivery, however, enables those 12 people to be brought together and learn together in a way that is equally effective – even while continuing to gain experience – the other great shortage employers often seek.

Employers who are serious about taking charge of their own future, and proactively addressing the barriers which are preventing profitability and growth without waiting for others to act, should be grabbing e-learning with both hands.

Download: Nestle upskills global workforce

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:45:53 +0000

In this very succinct download, key lessons from Nestles experience upskilling its global workforce using elearning are described. The importance of learning as an integral part of organisation culture is identified, and the link between elearning culture is also hinted at when this brief case study mentions internal branding for example.

The Nestlé training team has gone one step further to ensure that continual learning is a central part of the organisation’s culture. After discussion with, and agreement from their managers, employees have no restrictions on what courses they are able to take, i.e. someone in a production job could take the MCSE or Oracle certification. By opening up learning in this way, every member of staff, from factory workers to top level management, is given the opportunity to further their personal and professional development. From the outset, the supplier’s services team has worked hand-in-hand with Nestlé, from designing the right solution to meet its specific needs, to customising the learning interface to match Nestlé’s internal branding.

The Nestlé training team has gone one step further to ensure that continual learning is a central part of

the organisation’s culture. After discussion with, and agreement from their managers, employees have

no restrictions on what courses they are able to take, i.e. someone in a production job could take the

MCSE or Oracle certification. By opening up learning in this way, every member of staff, from factory

workers to top level management, is given the opportunity to further their personal and professional

development.

From the outset, the supplier’s services team has worked hand-in-hand with Nestlé, from designing the

right solution to meet its specific needs, to customising the learning interface to match Nestlé’s internal

branding.

Nestle upskills global workforce (pdf)

Linking organisation culture and e-learning

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:55:51 +0000

Organisation culture consists of three central components:

Myths: about how the organisation began, difficulties that were overcome, colourful figures and monumental events.
Ideology: the unified set of beliefs which explain and legitimise the organisation.
Values: which tell people what is important, and how to behave. Values provide meaning and standards.

In an organisation with a strong culture, key values are intensely and widely shared. The stronger the culture is, the greater the influence it has on the behaviour of an organisation.[i]

In customised elearning programmes, good instructional design will consider and reflect the culture of the organisation. It should tell the myths, speak to the ideology and advocate key values of the organisation. It should be integrated into design from the very early stages.

Because the strength of a culture is built upon consistency, elearning can be a useful way to reinforce and shape culture. It is particularly effective when used to induct and train employees new to the organisation. Well designed elearning programmes for new staff can deliberately and convincingly shape their thinking and teach the legends of the organisations history to ensure continuity in the way culture is learned and applied across the organisation.

For these reasons, using the standard public offerings of independent training organisations for developing staff can sometimes be contrary to maintaining a powerful internal culture, or at least be off less value than a customised solution that meets training needs and is fully consistent with the core culture of the employer.

Sometimes culture is being considered not as something to be maintained and strengthened, but instead as something to be created, shifted or changed.

Handling change is not easy. People fell uncomfortable when shifted from the status quo, negativity grows very easily and there is often tremendous resistance. Taking risks, or looking at the organisation from a different perspective can be exciting, but people will need extra support to help them reach their potential. [ii]

Often a conscious shift in culture is being implemented by key change agents and needs to be sold to the wider ‘community’ within the organisation. Sound decisions by champions of change are often carefully considered and meaningful, but rational decisions mean little to others unless they fully understand the reasons behind them.

Elearning can be an effective way to bring people on board and promote a desired change. Organisation theories can be taught, advantages can be understood, new knowledge can be acquired and essential skills developed. Perhaps most importantly, ideas that make sense in principle can be applied to ‘real life’ scenarios so people grow to believe in the change being advocated.

Finally, elearning itself can be a manifestation of a healthy and vibrant culture. If your organisation values innovation, best practise, learning, competitiveness or quality, e-learning should definitely be part of the mix!

[i] People and Enterprises: Organisational Behaviour in New Zealand, McLennan et al, p398, 1995.

[ii] Everything you ever needed to know about training, Thorne and Mackey, p184, 2007.

Download: E-Learning success stories in the not-for-profit sector

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:45:32 +0000

This commentary sets out the clear benefits of elearning for the not-for-profit sector. The link between stated advantages and real case studies illustrates what can be achieved. Creative approaches to building capacity in not-for-profit organisations are well served by the flexibility and customisation that elearning provides.

While inspirational to those working in the sector, if there is a criticism we would offer it is the lack of emphasis on instructor led learning and asynchronous approaches, which we find to be most effective in developing skills and knowledge in the not-for-profit sector.

The research report can be found: HERE

E-learning for small business: More benefit, less cost

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:00:26 +0000

The emergence of elearning as a tool for business is not complete until it is fully accessible for small and medium sized businesses in New Zealand. There are over 350,000 SME’s in New Zealand, making up 99% of all business and employing about 60% of the workforce. [i]

Unfortunately customised elearning solutions have typically been too expensive to be fully utilised by smaller operations. One of the often cited benefits of elearning is the cost savings it offers but these comments tend to be directed at the ‘delivery’ aspect of the process and used to justify the prohibitive cost of the design process.

In the United States, which is further along the elearning adoption curve than New Zealand, this need was being recognised as far back as 2001:

“Some providers are starting to pay attention to smaller firms, which is good news because elearning can be especially beneficial to smaller organizations”[ii]

One way this was beginning to be addressed was through a collaborative approach that shared costs:

“The cost and convenience of e-learning recently led the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce to create an online learning center for its 2,200 members-most of whom have fewer than 100 employees. “We saw a decline in attendance at our educational programs, while there was not a decline in expressed desire for learning opportunities,” says Meridian Napoli, the Chamber’s small business manager. “E-learning meets that educational need at a more convenient time than instructor-led seminars.”[iii]

Eight years later, one wonders how long it will be before an enlightened Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand recognises this opportunity to make training immediately more accessible. Anyone working for a Chamber of Commerce member is likely to have experienced the frustration of not being able to find the time to attend what are often excellent training opportunities.

Of course there is no reason why small business can not take it upon itself to collaborate in this way. There are a number of ways that design and delivery of elearning can be accomplished which are highly affordable for even the smallest business.

This is vitally important because not only are SME’s a huge portion of the business sector, but they also stand to benefit the most from elearning. All the reasons that elearning has been adopted by major corporates tend to amplified in the small business context.

In small and medium sized enterprise:

Cost margins tend to be tighter and so cost savings such as those offered by elearning are more critical;
Staff numbers are limited and it is difficult to take people away from day-to-day responsibilities, and doing so adds considerable opportunity cost;
There is greater benefit from the ‘cost per participant’ approach to elearning which saves financial losses from the fixed cost nature of workshops – whether conducted for 3 or 30 people;
There is no in-house training department so the benefits of a range of training options normally enjoyed by larger organisations are of greater value;
Being able to use existing resources (computers and internet access) is more important;

These are just a few of many examples.

It is unfortunate that in the short history of elearning as we understand it now, those with the most to gain have had the least opportunity to do. Prohibitive costs have undermined the reach of elearning, and creative business models to improve access for smaller organisations have not been adequately explored.

If you would like to know more about how creative approaches can lift your staff training and development to another level, please contact us.

[i] http://sme-centre.massey.ac.nz/

[ii]http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_5_46/ai_74829361/

[iii] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_5_46/ai_74829361/

Building a business case for E-learning

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:12 +0000

This document looks at e-learning from a business manager’s perspective, describes some of the ways it can improve your bottom line, and builds a compelling business case for the adoption and implementation of e-learning in your organisation.

(8 pages, PDF)

http://www.e-learningguru.com/wpapers/building_case.pdf

Welcome to our world of elearning

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:18:21 +0000

A world where best practise e-learning programmes allow you to learn your way.

A world where organisations can easily and afforably add e-learning capability.

Do you want the benefits of e-learning for yourself or your organisation but can’t find really good design and delivery of e-learning at a fair price?

We provide a range of e-learning programmes for the public, and design and deliver customised e-learning for organisations.

We use best practise approaches to deliver excellent e-learning using software like Moodle through our own online campus. We use those same skills to provide e-learning capability to other organisations.

It’s a simple way to get all the benefits and savings of e-learning, and our advanced business model lets us do that at a very good price.

Here’s an example. They say the total cost of employing a staff member on a salary of $50,000 is more like $75,000. If that person’s job is training staff we can do it better and for half that, and save that company over $35,000 a year. That’s not counting the huge travel and accommodation savings if that training is delivered at different locations.

For our own learners it’s all about being able to study when and where you want to. In front of the fire on a cold night, on the deck in the sun. Anywhere with a computer and an internet connection really.

Please browse our site, have a look at our Blog and sign up for the updates if you like. We publish good information about e-learning every couple of days.

If you want to know more we would love to hear from you.