Why training is broken in the age of Covid

Mark Ridley explains why computer-based training needs to change, and how we should think differently around what we want staff to gain from it

The way we deliver training can be ineffective, and the corporate mindset over what we want training to give staff is similarly flawed.

That's the opinion of Mark Ridley, former CTO of the FT and co-founder of tech outsourcing firm SeeTo, speaking to Computing recently.

Ridley explained that it's crucial to get training right because it's a fundamental tool in keep staff happy and engaged.

"Training is a key component in keeping staff motivated especially in technical organisations. For most engineers, you'll find learning is at the heart of their motivation for being at work."

He added that training is about more than just sending someone on a course.

"You can't just tell someone they're going on training course and expect them to engage. Supporting life long learning is far more than just doing a course and getting a certificate. Because even with healthy training budgets you can struggle to get people to engage."

Engagement can be even harder during the pandemic than previously, according to Ridley. Whereas previously someone might return from a day in the office and not mind an hour in front of the home computing doing some training, now that just feels like more work.

"Now that work and home life is so blurred, an extra hour in front of the laptop in the evening just feels like more work. So training needs to be different. Can you turn it into more of a team sport?"

He said that training doesn't have to be directly relevant to someone's job, but rather it should help employees be more creative and to think differently.

"It's important that you have people in your business that want to learn, that's more important even than seeing if the training is super relevant. Your training should allow employees to come and work together and learn something interesting and new.

"For instance could you get people in and teach them how to code in Python? Or get a team together and give them the tools and access to raining to learn how blockchain works. The benefit is they'll see things in different ways. The outcome you want is that your staff to increase their capability and see the world in a different way."

Previously Ridley discussed what hybrid working might look like in the coming years.