e-learning for IT skills
"e-learning is 'the use of any technology across the learning process, including skills diagnostics, learning delivery, support, management, assessment, informal and formal learning.'" (e-skills UK)
Technology offers huge scope for training your staff through electronic learning. e-learning is accessible, flexible and cost-effective. It helps you respond rapidly to changing business needs and increases morale and professional confidence among employees.
e-learning is most successful when:
- it is planned and managed effectively
- everyone is committed and involved, whether director, senior manager, line manager or worker
- the technology works and you know what to do when it doesn't
- the material is relevant to the learner's needs
- the delivery fits the learner's learning style
- the delivery fits in around the time and place that is best for the learner
Laura Overton, e-Learning Champion for the Skills for Business Network, says:
"In today's increasingly mobile and flexible business environment, e-learning supports tailored, 'just-in-time' learning that can be accessed quickly, widely and cost-effectively by staff regardless of where they are and their hours of work.
"The electronic delivery and support of formal training has been shown to make a significant contribution to staff productivity and motivation. Informal learning is being used by staff to share knowledge between widely dispersed teams in a way that is not easily captured through more traditional methods."
For more about how organisations use and benefit from different types of e-learning, see Towards Maturity, which reports on a research study of 200 organisations and 1,000 individual learners organisations across all sectors. It is produced by e-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms.
