The focus of the Further Training has changed enormously with the digitization: more than individual qualification is now about meaningfulness and participation in the company success. Good reasons to participate and to ask for more.

Empowerment for employees

Continuing 4.0 in the name of networking

For today's workers means Further Training more than attending individual courses and training courses. Rather, it is a long-term process that Employees and supports companies in three primary goals:

Ultimately, it's still about Success and recognition of the individual employee. And to strengthen the Company, which benefits from the competence of its employees. But the ways have changed: many things are faster and more direct digitally. On the other hand should Feedback and personal exchange are maintained. Further education 4.0 (analogous to the Industry 4.0) therefore stands for a networked expansion of Competenciesto support individuals in moving the whole forward.

Employees have a vested interest in developing these paths: they gain more autonomy through empowerment; more regular through the exchange of skills Background and feedback. In addition, they can help shape the company's success if they can act agilely based on their knowledge. Together, these aspects result in a company-wide training culture, which will be examined in more detail here.

To decide with oneself

For many employees today, a job has to bring more than Money and security. The requirements include flexibility, Work-Live-Balance, meaningfulness and participation in higher-level processes. Often to the frustration of employers: involving every single employee in processes can be difficult or impossible. Nevertheless, it is worth keeping employees at least informed, and at the same time communicating strategic considerations and background knowledge transparently. The idea here is that well-informed people make good decisions. In this way, managers avoid the need for individual work steps check, by leaving it up to the employee to act “correctly” in the interest of the company.

But what is correct? As already mentioned, sound knowledge is a prerequisite. Regularly refreshed knowledge of guidelines, corporate environment, Strategies and competitors put an employee in a position to competently assess and act accordingly. In other words, he or she is “enabled” to act on behalf of the supervisor without the latter necessarily having to be present or being available for direct feedback. That's why the Term empowerment established. The supervisor literally gives "authorization" to act independently and benefits from a lower error rate and higher Motivation on the part of the employees.

Learning from each other

Classic further training often aims to strengthen individual skills. The qualifications However, a company can only use individuals correctly if they fit into the overall structure, i.e. if employees can also properly instruct, motivate and support others due to their skills. Frustration easily arises with the (further) trained employee who cannot use his knowledge properly, as well as with the Teamthat only notices the absences from seminars instead of results. It therefore makes more sense to communicate knowledge and newly acquired skills in a team and apply them together.

To the common Things to Learn to be the focus of internal further training, training courses are dependent on dialogue and feedback. This can be done with face-to-face training light implement, but what about the digital means that are being used more and more, such as e-learning? Social Learning is a variant of eLearning that relies heavily on exchange and reciprocity Ask and encourages responses. In addition, also have Blended Learning (Mix of on- and offline elements) and Webinars (seminars broadcast online) established to facilitate personal exchange at Online- Maintain training.

Make business agile (er)

In the fast changing times, “agility” gains in importance Significance to promote flexibility and reaction speed on the market. Nevertheless, agility is one of the vaguest terms in the corporate scene: is it about strategy, Status or state of mind? According to Arie van Bennekum, co-founder of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, “Agile is what you are, not what you do.” In other words: the will and the identification with dynamic processes lead to success, but not the structures and strategic considerations.

If a company wants to position itself dynamically, it must absolutely avoid long preparation times for changes. So it always has to be prepared, and this of course includes the employees. And in order to take employees with you, you need - as always - Communication. Information relating to the identity and positioning of a company can easily be disseminated via the usual channels: Intranet, social media, emails, speeches. It just has to be done, naturally and regularly. Since internal training is an essential part of exchanging operational information, it is also a way of involving employees in agile processes. A sensible one at that, because here information is not only transmitted according to the “one-to-many” principle, but also discussed, internalized and queried again and again. So if you use internal training to involve employees in higher-level processes, you are not just expanding the knowledge in the company: People work more motivated and get a sense of belonging and meaningfulness. At least if exchanges are regular and on eye level operated, allowing feedback and feedback Effect demonstrate.

Modernizing education

Requirements and ways of continuing education have changed in the course of digitization: faster, more dynamic, self-determined. Therefore, the deployment of computer-based forms of learning such as eLearning is hardly surprising. People want (and have to) use suitable moments to further their education and are less and less likely to keep whole days and weeks off for seminars. Similarly, the freedom is celebrated, retrieve content at any time on the particular device desired, so like mobile.

The flexible retrieval is accompanied by the fact that learning steps become ever shorter and more compact. In order to meet this demand, the so - called Microlearning established: learning in short units, or even snacks. Learners therefore have to spend less time on individual learning sequences and can gradually complete their training. Above all, this form of presentation allows a much higher concentration than the hourly seminar. Digital education is therefore very promising. It is and still is important that trainers and participants try out the new paths together and support each other by feedback on the level of their eyes and fair evaluation.