The future of education is about upskilling and reskilling your workforce for the future. I recently interviewed Elaina Farnsworth, CEO of The NEXT Education. She shared how education is changing. We also discussed how to take your life and business to the next level by understanding how these changes impact you and your team.
You can learn more about Elaina Farnsworth at her LinkedIn Profile or you can get a short overview here in last week’s blog. I believe she brings a practical solution to the future of work. Can I share it in a way that makes you more interested in her work and purpose? As technology leaders, we are always looking to better understand what’s happening in our world.
The future of workforce development is changing
I believe Elaina’s work is important today. She is helping create a better future for all of us. Her purpose is to provide the best certification and training programs to upskill and reskill workers of tomorrow. Elaina Farnworth’s goal is to meet the demand for knowledgeable leaders, educated employees, and skilled trades people in Autonomous, Industrial Mobility, Cybersecurity, and Smart City technologies.
Now how does The NEXT Education help clients accomplish their goals? Elaina shared they use a number of technologies to create a credentialing program that aligns with corporate goals. They have both a series of programs and MicroTraX courses which allow for integrated learning across industry verticals.
New workforce requires flexible education options
They use a blended learning system that incorporates video based and on-line live instruction, learning that is flexible, convenient, and entertaining, allowing students to increase their capabilities at any stage in the careers. This can be delivered whenever and wherever you are ready to learn.
One of the unique qualities to this training is that they can custom design the training to align with corporate goals and objectives. Their early successes come from helping upskill current employees to areas in their clients’ organizations that have talent shortages or increased demands.
Generational differences require new strategies
Today’s training is broken down into shorter segments between 3-4 minutes. Younger people have much shorter attention spans which typical run approximately 7 minutes. This form of training is called micro-training. It allows for faster learning and higher retention of the material covered than many traditional classrooms. For many digital natives, it’s their preferred learning style.
Being self-directed means that students or workers can choose the pace of their learning. I’ve found this just in time training style allows for a wide range educational backgrounds to get what they need at the time they need it. This is critically important for individuals who are in fields that seem to be changing almost weekly.
Transform today’s workforce faster
I found it interesting that they can also get people ready faster than traditional education. They do this with pre-assessments that let them design custom development tracks for new talent coming into the organization. When you think about this you can see why many organizations are looking at these programs in a positive way. I’m personally a huge fan of this type of training and coaching.
Many smaller and mid-sized organizations are upgrading their technology capabilities. Having the ability to use this training can save them money and time. It can also provide greater employee attraction and retention for organizations who many times wouldn’t be first choice for potential technology employees.
Attract new team members through education
When trying to attract great team members these training and development capabilities could help make you an employer of choice. For many years, my smaller clients have used training and a variety of career paths as a way to compete with larger competitors for the best people.
It’s interesting when I look at the clients I work with in older, more mature industries. I have noticed their ability to grow is not limited by the sales and marketing efforts.
It’s their ability to attract good technical and front line support professionals. These are the individuals who have helped clients during the recent COVID-19 crisis. They continue to build strong relationships with our customers’ organizations.
Reskill your teams for future business opportunities
Having an accelerated learning program and specific developed training tracks could help these front line heroes help your organization grow. These people are going to be agents of change within your markets.
As we see sensors and real time analytics being deployed and serviced in this new economy, you see increasing demand for these new capabilities. As sensor and 5G costs continue to fall there will be an increased demand for individuals that are great technicians. Elaina feels that these next generation techs are the cornerstone of the new economy.
Various education paths for new career success
Successful organizations need to embrace both leadership and technicians to build a successful, sustainable organization. The good news for organizations is that both these capabilities can be learned through increased education and training. Both of these groups can be the heroes or heroines inside your organizations.
If we are going to thrive in the future, we need to create organizations that are flexible and anticipatory in their training and development needs. If you would like more information on what’s available, you should reach out to Elaina Farnsworth or on their LinkedIn corporate page.
See you next week.
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