Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

A Well Trained Organization is a Successful Organization

In today’s economy, well trained employees are the catalyst to a successful organization. Some of the most widely used skills that we apply to everyday life – listening, problem solving and negotiation, just to name a few – are also key workplace competencies that can help employees be more than an extension of an organization but also a strategic business differentiator.

To help support organization’s employee training initiatives, SkillSoft today introduced a new flexible competency based learning solution – SkillSoft Professional Advantage.  SkillSoft Professional Advantage delivers targeted blended learning assets for non-managerial professionals because professional development is not just for managers - employees of all levels need to develop their skills throughout their careers. 

Lending a Hand with Learning

Timothy Burford, a once homeless Iraqi war veteran, tells his inspiring story of overcoming obstacles to secure a job in IT. Burford earned several IT certifications through the Creating IT Futures Foundation, a non-profit that helps individuals at risk of falling below the poverty line prepare for careers in the IT field.  During the past four years, SkillSoft has supported this great cause by donating blocks of IT courses.

Watch how learning helped Burford gain a successful career.

 

The Perspectives Experience: Not Your Typical Vendor Conference

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from one of our customers, Sarah Cooper, LMS analyst for Waste Management, Inc. Sarah uses SkillSoft’s KnowledgeCenters to help engage learners at Waste Management with a different approach to learning. Today, she is sharing her thoughts on SkillSoft’s Annual Perspectives User Conference.

By Sarah Cooper, LMS Analyst, Waste Management, Inc.

Vendor conferences can have one of two outcomes; good or bad. Perspectives is not good or bad, it is outstanding!

Last year I had the opportunity as a customer of SkillSoft to attend the Perspectives conference. Only knowing about the services that our company had in place, I was unsure what this conference would offer, and how it could benefit our team. Prior to the conference, SkillSoft posted the agenda for the conference along with all the sessions they were going to offer. I was shocked. There were so many other products and solutions that SkillSoft offered, and I had no idea. Along with the sessions pertaining to their products, SkillSoft also lined up well-known, influential keynote speakers. Among last years, keynote speakers were Jeanne Meister and Tim Sanders. Both speakers gave outstanding presentations. Tim Sanders spoke about continuous learning, emotional intelligence and discussed his book Today We Are Rich: Harnessing The Power of Total Confidence. Jeanne Meister’s presentation centered on the 2020 workplace and how all generations will be together in the workspace. She also spoke about her book The 2020 Workplace. Both speakers were engaging, insightful, and I personally gained insight on topics that I had never sat and thought about, and came home with more books to read!

Perspectives 2012 Innovation in Learning Awards Are Now Open!

Here is another Perspectives 2012 update from Melynda Hilliard, SkillSoft’s Events Marketing Manager. She will be sharing updates throughout the next few months. Stay tuned for more exciting details!

By Melynda Hilliard

Do your learning programs empower others at your organization and make an impact?

It’s that time of year again… nominations for SkillSoft’s annual Innovation in Learning Awards are now open! SkillSoft recognizes clients each year for their outstanding learning programs and innovative ideas. We honor companies that help enable effective learning environments by leveraging SkillSoft products and services.

Our award categories are designed to recognize organizations of all sizes and industries, covering several subject areas of learning. By offering awards in ten categories, we hope to single out an organization for a particularly inspirational program in a specific area, such as IT training.

Training is Not Just for the Big Guys

In today’s economic climate, it is more important than ever for businesses to have a skilled workforce to help with the strategic growth of the enterprise. For Small to Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs), developing and retaining a skilled workforce is vital to their success. Unfortunately, many SMBs are so focused on staying afloat that they don’t realize that training their employees can go a long way in strengthening their overall business.

In a recent article on SmallBusinessTrends.com titled 11 Tips for Building and Managing a Team, a question was posed to the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs:

“What one employee management tip would you give entrepreneurs who are building their team?”

The number one response:  “Train Them.”

Don’t Go it Alone… SkillSoft Provides Content Alignment Tools and Resources

By Molly Scholes

An important challenge many organizations face is how to create a meaningful learning strategy that is aligned to strategic business initiatives and impacts performance.  Business impact should be the most important goal for any type of learning intervention offered to employees.  In order to impact the business, learning must be targeted, relevant and often – quick!  SkillSoft can help your organization design this type of learning program with various tools and services.

Content Mapping

As a SkillSoft customer, your organization likely has access to thousands of learning assets including courses, books, videos, job aids, simulations, leadership tracks, and more!

It’s an overwhelming task to think about reviewing all of these resources to find the specific content that is most applicable for your program objective.  Let SkillSoft identify the most applicable resources for your organization based on a competency or business initiative.  SkillSoft will map the most relevant learning resources to up to 60 business skills competencies or initiatives once annually at no charge.

KPMG Discusses the Benefits of Attending Perspectives

KPMG's Rachelle Hansen enjoys the Perspectives user conference because the focus is on learning--not product sales. Hansen says she learned more about learning at Perspectives 2010 than throughout the rest of the year! Registration is now open. Visit http://perspectives.skillsoft.com/2012/?srcid=blog for more details.

  

Save Time and Money: Tips for Using SkillSoft Blended Learning Resources

By Molly Scholes

Business Stakeholder to L&D Team:  “My team needs to brush up on time management skills.  I’m having a team meeting in two weeks and I’d like to include this topic on the agenda for an hour.  Would you be able to pull together a presentation and cover this during my meeting?”

L&D Team:  “Unfortunately our team is already working on several other projects.  It would take our instructional designer at least a day or two to pull together a great one hour session for you.  If I use a contractor or purchase something for you, it could be expensive.”

Business Stakeholder to L&D Team:  “I didn’t realize you’d need that much notice.  Maybe next time…”

If you’re like most L&D organizations, this scenario is common.  You receive too many requests and don’t have enough time or money to meet every need.  No one likes saying “no” or “maybe later” to a request that will help drive immediate employee performance.  If you take advantage of the newly released SkillSoft Blended Learning Resources you won’t have to!  They’re perfectly suited to handle a request like this one and many others. 

ASTD 2011 State of the Industry Report Finds Continued Investment in Employee Learning and Development

Despite the global economic instability, organizations dramatically increased spending on learning and development in 2010, according to the ASTD 2011 State of the Industry Report. The report, sponsored by SkillSoft, confirms that organizations continue to be committed to the delivery of knowledge and the development of employees at every level.

In the report, the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD), the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals, revealed that in 2010 employers spent more on employees' development than ever before. Businesses in the United States spent $171.5 billion on employee learning in 2010, up from $125.8 billion in 2009.

The Secrets to Project Scheduling Success

One of the keys to successfully managing a project is scheduling. It’s also the one area that most intimidates project managers and most often goes array. Scheduling is an inexact process but one that is essential to any project – it’s the roadmap a project follows and often it’s like predicting the future.

To help certified PMPs, anyone interested in becoming certified or those responsible for project management training within their organizations with the task of scheduling projects, SkillSoft will be hosting a complimentary webinar, “Discover the secret to project scheduling success: Critical Path Demystified.” The webinar, scheduled for Jan. 31 at 11 a.m. ET, will be hosted by Emily Berry, PMP, a veteran technical and project management training instructor.

In the webinar, Emily Berry will discuss how to use the critical path method, an often overlooked technique for modeling a project schedule, to manage deadlines. When done correctly, the critical path method illuminates the earliest and latest times an activity can start without delaying the due date. A project manager who is armed with these dates is empowered to make the right decisions for project success.

For more information and to register for the webinar, please click here.