HR Practitioners Should Align Workforce Skills and Invest in Learning and Development
- Studies indicate that there hasn’t been a commensurate investment in learning and development by organizations
- Only 16 percent of the existing training programs surveyed in the study were found effective and relevant
- The focus should be on ’employee-driven’ or ‘user-centric’ learning approaches
As technology redefines the future of work, HR practitioners roll out innovative training models to address skills mismatch and respond to changing global trends.
Experts say that despite technological advancements that are redefining business operations, growing competition among organizations to hire and retain top talent and worrying skills mismatch in the workplace, institutions have not put in place requisite learning and development systems to bridge the skills gap, cultivate relationships in the workplace, ensure employee satisfaction and grow bottom lines.
A recently released report conducted by City & Guilds Group business Kineo, a leading global skills organization, indicates that human resources practitioners and training managers continue to grapple with a fast-changing business landscape that requires constant skills upgrade and a growing demand for personal development from staff coming at a time when both leaders and staff lack organizational skills to take their businesses to the next level.
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But even as employees express appetite for learning and development training that have proved effective in an organization’s well-being, studies indicate that there hasn’t been a commensurate investment in them by organizations.
According to the report: “Employees around the world have a strong appetite for learning, they are inhibited by a lack of accessible, appropriate and engaging training opportunities.”
The study that surveyed 6500 employees and 1300 employers across 13 markets among them Kenya, South Africa, and UK found that: “While 79 percent of employees expressed interest in seeing a bigger focus on training and people development in their workplace, 85 percent are currently struggling to access training in their workplace.”
But even the existing training programs have also come under scrutiny with only 16 percent of those surveyed in the study finding them effective and relevant to their growth and that of their organizations.
“As the workplace learning and development programs fail to meet employee’s expectations, the staff are looking at personalized alternatives with the research indicating that 6 out of the ten employees surveyed invested their personal time in learning, education or training activity, and 59 percent had sought online advice, guidance or e-learning solutions,” said the report.
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It is against this backdrop that players in the Training, Learning and Development industry among them Human Resource and Development practitioners, Training Managers and coordinators, Capacity Development experts, Curriculum and skills development experts, innovators and investors are set to meet in Nairobi Kenya from December 3 – 5, 2019 for the Annual Training Evaluation Compendium in Africa, ATECA, conference, the first of its kind in the region.
Themed ‘Value and Accountability in Training Management and Human Resource Development Investments,’ the gathering is looking at placing a pulse on the current learning systems and technologies while championing for increased investment in modern training models that makes business sense to African organizations and their workforce. It will target corporate, academia, Not-for-Profit, government and International Development institutions.
“Due to technological advancements and globalization, our working environment is constantly changing, there is a focus on ’employee-driven’ or ‘user-centric’ learning approaches. It is essential that we understand what this actually means for us in Africa. Companies invest billions in learning management systems adopted globally that may or may not be suitable for circumstances that employees operate in,” said Catherine Jura Director of Learning and Development at Edify Learning Forum Africa, ELFA, the conveners of the conference.
The conference intends to also develop an open source compendium of best practices that will bolster and harmonize training, learning, and development among African organizations while aligning them to emerging global trends.
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