Corporate training is one of the most important aspects of any corporate strategy. According to researchandmarkets¹, corporate training market in the US is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 10% during 2018-2022. Forbes² estimates the market size for corporate training industry to be over $130 billion in the year 2017-2018. With new technology advancements in the areas of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and so on,  the training industry is transforming at an accelerated pace. Technology has great potential to address some of the challenges for all the stakeholders associated with corporate training. With wide adoption of mobile devices, technical advancement in the form of head mounted displays (HMD) and multi-sensory inputs processing capabilities, new age training is going beyond physical classroom training to virtual trainings, accessible anytime-anywhere-anyhow.

Challenges

For a successful corporate training program that involves various functions, such as sales, operations, service, etc. distractions should be minimum to ensure a  better learning rate. As maintaining focus on incoming stream of information is always a big challenge, training should be immersive to avoid monotony and boredom.

In this highly-connected world, it would be difficult and expensive for global organizations to provide classroom trainings. The complexity of sharing knowledge at optimum investment with field staff or on-floor staff, spread across various geographies and remote locations without affecting the normal operations is a serious drawback of classroom trainings. For example, for an organization launching a new product, using traditional training techniques for sales and services executives spread across the globe will involve many logistic challenges as it would mean providing new products to all the locations or making all these executives travel to a central place to attend the training program.

Below are some of the challenges for various stakeholders associated with corporate training:

Proposed Solution – Digital Trainer

A Digital Trainer can disrupt the conventional training ecosystem by shifting from “instructional learning” to “experience learning”. It is an intelligent and adaptive learning platform where different training modules can be configured through pre-built content libraries. 

Let us look at some of the features that a Digital Trainer should possess from the perspectives of trainees and trainers.

Trainee:

• The Digital Trainer provides immersive experience thereby minimizing the distractions during trainings.
• A personalized training experience delivered by an artificial personality or an Avatar-based Digital Trainer with natural interaction capability using text & voice based conversation.
• AR, VR & MR based interactive tutorials where trainees can interact with life sized objects. This will also reduce the distractions by giving immersive interactive experience.
• Training should be equipped with visual aids such as object highlighting in the virtual environment. It should be given via step-by-step guidance at the pace that suites the trainee.
• Trainees should be able to get a cross sectional view of critical components and be able to view the intricate operations of the equipment if required.
• Queries can be asked using natural language anytime during the training cycle.
• A live trainer should be accessible to provide information anytime during the training session. Queries raised post regular working hours should be queued to be answered later.

Trainer:

• Trainee’s every interaction with Digital Trainer should be tracked, allowing trainers to learn what trainees may need further training on and to test and measure their progress with immersive training simulations and quizzes
• Trainers should be able to view the progress of each individual. Graphical data should be available about the enquiries made and response provided
• Trainers can have audit trail available for each learner. Training data should also be downloadable for offline evaluation
• Trainers should have easy to use interface to edit the training material so that they can create training contents aided by 3D models, animations, annotations  and cross-sectional views though simple interfaces
• Standard operating procedures involving complex and emergency situations, such as accidents, machine failure, emergency shutdown etc. can be trained and evaluated using simulations

Benefits of Digital Trainer

Below are some of the benefits of Digital Trainer solution.

• Improvement of employee learning capability by providing a wide range of personalized training modules
  
• Eliminates the need to retain a costly machine solely for the training purpose at every facility
• Large number of technicians can be trained per training batch
• Improvised and cost effective skill assessment of technicians because of hands-on-evaluation and tests
• Portability can enable training of technicians “anytime anywhere”
• Digital Trainer solution optimizes training cost and simplifies training logistics leading to additional cost saving
• Saves time by creating better productivity and efficiency of field technicians
• Better employee engagement – brings learning to employees
• Troubleshooting and maintenance scenarios can be simulated easily
• Standardization of training process and uniform training programs

Incorporating new technologies in training programs can allow organizations to move beyond basic skill development to employee performance improvement.  For learners, technology can help improve outcomes by adding context, relevance and personalization to the learning experience. For instance, AI can predict whether you will get your next assessment question right, based on your behavior, cognition and engagement.

Industries need to act sooner than later if they wish to disrupt their models and don’t want to be left behind.

Reference:

1. www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4538669/corporate-training-market-in-the-us-2018-2022
2. www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersi017/03/28/watch-out-corporate-learning-here-comes-disruption/#2b447d60dc59