The learning and development (L&D) industry is booming and is expanding at a rapid rate alongside innovative technologies—so much so that L&D departments themselves are becoming central hubs for all workplace innovation and growth.
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As the importance of L&D increases across all industries and departments, it’s becoming apparent that L&D professionals need to outsource help for their employees’ training and development needs. Otherwise, they’ll never be able to keep up with the demands of their industry or employees and will risk lagging behind their competitors.
When you look to external training firms and platforms to assist you with your employees’ training and development needs this year, here are five trends you’ll want to know about.
1. LaaS (Learning as a Service)
Moving forward, you will start to see more learning firms and learning technology platforms offer customizable technologies, integrations, services, and solutions—especially those entities that host learning management systems (LMS).
And you should be able to pick and choose what you want your learning services, solutions, and technology platforms to do for your organization and its employees. Because effective learning strategies and approaches require personalization in 2019 and beyond, LaaS should be a top priority for any training firm or technology provider.
For more details, read What You Need to Know About Learning as a Service (LaaS) in 2019 and Beyond.
2. Change Management and Coaching
Seventy percent of change initiatives fail in organizations because those organizations don’t have proper change management programs in place, which is becoming increasingly unacceptable and unsustainable in a business world where constant change is becoming the norm and is never an anomaly anymore.
So, more and more training firms will offer coaching services to organizations and L&D departments—services that will help them coach their own leaders and teams in change management.
3. Social Learning
In 2019 and beyond, you’ll want to rely on training firms and technology platforms that offer avenues for social learning such as gamified learning modules, virtual reality environments, and shared learning experiences.
For more insight on this trend, read Social Learning May Soon Outperform On-Demand Remote Learning.
4. Mobile-First Learning
As the popularity of remote work and flex work increases, so will the need for employees to access training and development opportunities via their mobile devices. You will no longer be able to put off implementing mobile-first training initiatives via platforms and solutions that are designed for mobile-first content and experiences.
Read Mobile Learning Trends for 2019 for additional information.
5. Deep AI Machine Learning
Last but not least, all training solutions and technologies will need to be equipped with deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) if they’re to offer more personalized learning options for each organization and its learners. So, look for solutions that offer such capabilities while also accounting for the pros and cons behind implementing deep learning AI technology.
To keep your L&D programs effective and competitive this year, keep the five trends mentioned above in mind as you outsource help.