“This next decade is really crucial to the way we develop our people,” says Cottone, a founding faculty member of The Leadership Conservatory and a managing consultant in the Chicago area. “I think a lot of changes are going to take place in the next 10 years.”
For example, Cottone expects that employers will identify opportunities for employees to learn more—and be more proactive—about health and wellness, including ways to manage stress.
In addition, an increasing number of employers will encourage “attitudinal shifts” in how employees view training and development, so they can “embrace lifelong learning,” acquire new skills as business and client needs change, and carve out time in their busy schedules for training, he says.
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Although he does not expect e-learning to replace classroom training, he anticipates that employers will increase their focus on e-learning and ways to train employees “in short bites.”
Over the next decade, training needs to become easily adaptable to address the changing needs of the business or its clients, according to Cottone. Trainers will need to “identify and develop training that is adaptable, can be changed on the spot, and can be changed easily.”
Two other trends are related to companies expanding their workforces overseas: developing “truly global” training (i.e., Web-based modules that enable employees in different countries to get involved in training together) and having employees complete “cultural sensitivity” training and training in foreign languages, according to Cottone. He also expects to see increased government investment in partnerships to train workers on the skills needed to compete with other countries.
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In addition, as an aging workforce approaches retirement, employers must find ways to pass along older workers’ knowledge to younger or less experienced workers, he says.
Cottone also expects a greater emphasis on leadership development over the next decade and an increasing number of experienced leaders directly sharing their knowledge with up-and-coming employees as part of companies’ succession planning efforts.
Other upcoming training trends identified by Cottone include incentivizing learners by tying their participation in training to performance management and promotions, offering training on reputation management, teaching in a virtual environment, understanding the needs of a new generation of learners, and focusing more on training that covers ethics, interpersonal communication, skills for new managers, and refresher skills for longtime managers.
Elearning will definitely start to make a bigger an impact. At only a $2 billion industry, it’s poised for serious growth as company’s look to do much of their training through computers and iPads – especially if they want to standardize across the globe.