Every South African company knows that there is a serious skills shortage in the marketplace, across most sectors and job types. Upskilling staff has been a high priority for both companies and government for more than two decades. Now, unemployment rates are skyrocketing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is more important than ever for companies to provide their employees with the skills and learning necessary to rebuild our economy.
That said, because of that self-same pandemic, there is a growing push towards remote work. There is also a recognition that many people live and work in areas that don’t allow them easy access to training facilities, colleges, universities, etc. As a result, more and more companies and individuals alike are looking to online learning. We took a look at some of the ways companies and individuals are taking their learning online.
University-accredited degrees, diplomas and courses
Many universities and colleges worldwide (South African included) have, for the last several years, offered accredited courses, diplomas and even degrees through various online platforms. Among these are Coursera and EdX, which allow you to complete any course that interests you, and achieve a university-accredited qualification. This comes complete with a certificate, usually for a reasonable fee or even free. Degrees require admission specifications and cost considerably more – albeit significantly less than attending the university full time. Both of these platforms offer a business option, which allows companies to pay for their employees’ learning and accreditation.
Other accredited courses
Other platforms like Udemy, LinkedIn Learning and Alison offer various courses developed by experts in their field. Some of these courses may carry a college-linked accreditation, but they are primarily accredited to the relevant platform. These platforms are universally recognised as providing quality course content. So, even though the accreditation isn’t officially recognised like a university credit,, they provide quality education and training, which ultimately benefits everyone. People successfully completing courses through these platforms are generally well equipped to do the work they trained for. Here, again, you can complete a course for free, or a small fee. There are also enterprise options that allow companies to enable their employees’ learning.
Company-specific external training
Some massive global companies offer external training in certain aspects of their work. Most notably is Google, which offers in-depth marketing courses that cover analytics, online behaviour and more. Google’s courses are free, which means anyone can complete them, as long as they have internet access. In this case, employers could help their staff find such free courses that will benefit both the company and the person.
In-house training
If your company offers in-house training, or has developed any short courses for employees, now is the perfect time to take these online. There are a multitude of ways you can do this, including: video conferencing, such as Zoom; live-streaming through various social media platforms; pre-recorded video lessons on YouTube. The only limit is your own creativity.
The most important thing to do is talk to your employees about what works best for them, Take into consideration things like data costs, online access, and the type of equipment they have at home. Not all your staff have, or need, a desktop or laptop computer, so may prefer learning through their mobile, for example. Take the time to understand how online learning can best serve your employees and your business for the long term.
At Tenaka, we make lives better, bringing about positive change to customer and employee experience through human-centred design. That’s why we’ve developed the Data-free Employee Communication platform to enable easy communications and learning for you and your employees. It includes everything you need to easily get in touch with staff, and to provide them with quality learning and training.