Sloman predicts rise of ‘learner centric’ culture

07 Sep 2010

by: Margaret Snell

The role of the learning and development professional will change towards more ‘learner centric’ solutions over the next ten years, according to author and lecturer Martyn Sloman.

The change in corporate culture will ensure employees are focused on learning the more specialised and specific skills they need to be effective at increasingly technical job roles.

Sloman, whose new e-book 'L&D2020: A Guide for the Next Decade' is about to be published, was speaking to learning and development professionals at e2train’s user group meeting. The event celebrated ten years in business for e2train.

Sloman said: “The next 10 years will see a shift in balance of the learning and development professional’s skill set towards greater business understanding, change management, organisation development and use of new technologies. At the most basic level, learning and development builds organisational benefits by enabling them to offer higher value products and services. The challenge is how to do it in practice in the context of the organisation. Hence the profession needs both a new mindset and a new skill set which is designed to meet individual rather than collective needs.”

Martin Belton, e2train business and development director, backed Sloman’s comments saying: “The more widely learning is available through free channels such as YouTube, the greater the need for learning professionals to understand and identify what isn’t available but still critical. That inevitably means a greater focus on individual learner demands. We’re going to get that most easily through better reporting and performance measurement. We are also seeing a move toward learning professionals adopting ‘guerrilla’ corporate learning tactics. That means  using local intelligence to deliver tailored learning where it will have the greatest effect rather than just creating all encompassing learning programmes designed around meeting blanket learning objectives”.

 

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