• What is your opinion on the changing corporate training landscape in India?

With 15 million youth entering the workforce each year, more than 75 per cent are barely job ready. According to the industry statistics, India would need 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet the demands of a growing economy. While the talent gap augments the need for corporate training, inflation and global economic slowdown has put a lot of constraint on the training budgets. This has propelled the L&D heads in search for technology aided and technology driven training interventions that have measurable business outcomes. Evolving from a group activity to a more personal experience, Technology enabled Blended Learning (TeBL®) enables them to access the training material as per their convenience. Additionally, smart Learning eXperience Platforms are able to provide on-demand video, web-based training, online virtual lab programs and virtual classrooms are enhancing employee capabilities based on individual, team and business needs.

• Are businesses in India investing enough in training their employees?

Corporate training is no longer a privilege, but a necessity that is a vital part for any company’s long-term investment in growth. In a recent survey of around 830 companies, it was found that organizations with a burgeoning culture of learning & development, had some of the highest performers. Also it was found that such organizations attracted more talented employees and had higher levels of customer satisfaction too.

Today a large strata of HR and L&D Heads consider investment on training to be an essential business enabler and they have realized the need to increase the value and return on training investment by designing courses that are customised to needs of employees and are clearly aligned with corporate strategy.

Global expansion of businesses and increasing domestic as well as global competition has been major growth drivers for rising importance of L&D, along with the millennial workforce forming the much talked about demographic dividend.  The skills scarcity augments the need for corporate training, inflation and global economic slowdown has put a lot of constraint on the training budgets.  This has made the organizations to look for and adapt smart technology aided training interventions to rationalize on the training costs and yet enhance the effectiveness. Here Centum LearnPro plays a vital role in become a smart learning partner in the organization’s journey to achieve goals. It provides a reliable, secure, flexible, and scalable blended learning solution for the continuous corporate training needs of an organization.

• What is your take from the budget announced recently?

It has been Centum’s endeavour to support government in skills training, and we are in support of the New National Education Policy, which will help in transforming the education system in our country.

The initiative to expand Women SHG Interest Subvention Programme in all the districts of India, could prove to be a great support in developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem at grass root level. As a leading skills training provider, we foresee a trickledown effect in Skill India Mission. Additionally, the government’s vision to train 10 million youth with future ready skills in areas of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics, etc. is a very forthcoming approach that we are in full support of. We believe that our Technology enabled Blended Learning (TeBL®) methodology will not only supplement this, but also enable various stakeholders involved in reversing the skill shortage in technology and IT domain.

• Centum is working across sectors, providing training services. What common challenges do you see in these markets?

Centum has worked across 21+ sectors and while the requirements are different for each sector, the real challenge arises during the training implementation. Here are the two biggest challenges that a training service provider usually deals with is engaging people. Regardless of the industry, a training intervention is deemed successful only if the learners are engaged in it. The best way to tackle this problem is by developing a vibrant training portfolio that utilizes a range of strategies such as micro-learning, using audio-visual aspects in your eLearning arrangement to provide its knowing goals. This can be done using Centum LearnPro®’s smart features like gamification and providing small video nuggets at various intervals is easy which ensure that the learner gets information fed at regular points, ensuring effective learning.

• What emerging trends do you foresee in this industry?

The organisations that thrive in today’s rapidly changing business environment will be those who embrace change and quickly adapt their business processes to prepare their employees for next phase of market’s growth trajectory. The training industry changes rapidly with new ways of providing effective solutions. Here are some of the trends that will shape the learning landscape of organisations:

Technology is the biggest factor – Digital transformations are no longer restricted to a specific department or a vertical in an organisation but are also transforming the creation of Learning and Development (L&D) programmes and their delivery. New and smart learning platforms like Centum LearnPro® ensure that technology is leveraged at its best.

Rise of the LXP- The LXP, Learning eXperience Platforms, are designed to support new ways of creating and delivering personalized learning paths built on a larger set of content. LXPs enable integrating various training delivery modes like self-paced trainings, classroom trainings.

AI enabled assistance- Increased use of AI in upskilling of employees certainly holds immense potential for learning. It can drive efficiency and personalisation which help provide understanding and adaptivity. This year will witness the large adoption of AI-based assistance.

Social learning and gamification- Engagement is one of the most common demands for L&D professionals struggling to get more buy-in from the ever-busier workforce. There are many tactics that are credited with enhancing engagement. Social learning means collaboration between individual and more and more learning will happen this mode.

Mobile based byte sized learning- Using Microlearning to provide holistic approach for skill-based learning amplifies its effectiveness. It involves short-term-focused strategies especially designed for skill-based understanding. Here a Learning eXperience Platform (LXP) provides the flexibility that a learner needs and allows them to develop the specific skills they need to excel in their particular areas of expertise, enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently. One of such LXP is Centum LearnPro®, which successfully on-boards new employees and inducts them to organizational culture and practices. It provides them with a comprehensive and personalized on boarding experience with anytime anywhere learning, so that they are work ready.

• Technology plays a huge part in the training process. How important is the human involvement in it?

With advancements in technology trainings are no longer conducted 100% on-site. Learning content is being delivered through the closest device to a learner, which is a gadget. With interactive learning models, small effective learning modules, gamification for easy learning are all added advantage that reduce costs and increase retention of learning content. Though technology has made it easier and with use of AI and ML, providing learners with necessary learning content according to initial assessment becomes easier, the human factor must not be dissolved.

Centum Learning follows the TeBL® approach which means Technology enabled Blended Learning. In this methodology, we blend the face-to-face training with technology enabled training delivery to make learning more effective. And, using Centum LearnPro® employees can undertake personalized trainings at their own pace, without exhausting the productive hours of work, while learning on a break or while traveling to/from office.

Human touch doesn’t necessarily mean one-on-one training. It can be interconnectivity on the learning platforms for employees to share their knowledge/ opinion with others that create a single learning platform. Technology based trainings should be utilized to rejig strategies that drive the employees to reach their full potential instead of just a medium to provide learning content.

• Every individual being different, how do you make sure that each need is catered to, effectively?

A single solution cannot cater to different needs hence it is a requisite to identify and assess, training requirements of human resource. An in-depth assessment helps L&D heads to identify and address the gaps between the existing training and the training which will be required in the future. Such individual assessment helps in identifying who needs what kind of training. It helps to identify the strengths of employees and areas of competency improvement. Additionally, with advent of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Augmented Reality helps to improve different aspects of the organization and build customized training programs to address important gaps and boost the effectiveness of the business.

Customized training to an individual level with blended training methodology, increases its effectiveness manifold. At organization level, the challenges faced by each organization are different, even though they may be from the same industry. Hence it is important to make the trainings more relevant and effective for the learners.