Create effective training paths, and guide your talents on the road to success!

The world of business is undergoing many upheavals, and keeping up in the face of fierce competition has become a daily challenge! One way to do this? Relying on the best talent.

By hiring the right profiles, you may ask? In reality, given current recruitment difficulties and the time spent on "onboarding" new recruits, the operation is not always profitable. The other solution is to rely on existing employees, by upgrading their skills through well-designed training programs.

How do you go about developing these training paths? By following the 6 steps below and relying on the right tools, such as LMS platforms. 💡

See all software Learning Management System (LMS)

Defining the training path

A training path, as it were, defines the path, strewn with pitfalls of educational modules, that the employee must travel to acquire his or her new knowledge and skills. As with any itinerary, it moves towards the arrival point in stages, in a logical and gradual way. 👣

Each training path is made up of various learning methods and targets specific pedagogical objectives, with the aim of increasing skills. For example:

• improving communication skills ;
• master specific software ;
• develop leadership skills;
• learning to manage projects, etc.

As mentioned in the introduction, this training pathway seems appropriate in a context where organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit, and are therefore becoming aware of the importance of capitalizing on skills already present.

☝️ The training pathway echoes companies' legal obligations under article L 6321-1 of the French Labour Code, which stipulates that " the employer must ensure that employees are adapted to their workstations. He shall ensure that they maintain their ability to hold a job, particularly with regard to changes in jobs, technologies and organizations. ".

Example of a training course

For a better understanding of the subject, here's an example of what a "Project management skills development" training course might look like.

How do you build an effective training program? 6 steps to follow

Step 1: Identify the objectives

An engaging training program must truly reflect the skills development needs of both the company and the employee.

To do this, you need to precisely define the professional objectives to be achieved, based in particular on :

• the conclusions of annual and professional interviews;
• the various questionnaires completed throughout the year (yes, feedback is more relevant if it's collected continuously!) ;
• the results of more operational tests.

In this way, you'll have a clearer idea of where you want to start, and how far you want to go.

Step 2: Set the training framework

Once you've defined your professional objectives, you need to know the context in which the training will be carried out. For example, are there any time constraints to consider? Or other obstacles?

On a more general level, you also need to understand the company's learning culture: find out what the learners' references are in terms of the type of training, the kind of roadblocks they are likely to encounter, etc.

👉 For example, in a structure with little digitalization, some employees may be frightened by the idea of taking online courses.

Step 3: Build the learning path

At this point, ask yourself what the stages of the training are. In other words, it's time to structure the content in a progressive and logical way.

Then organize your learning modules so that they flow naturally, evolving from basic concepts to more complex notions.

💡 A few tips in passing:

• Vary formats to maintain interest. For example, alternate between lectures, practical exercises, case studies, group discussions, etc.
• Use multimedia supports (videos, infographics, quizzes) to diversify learning modes and address different cognitive styles.
• Prepare complementary resources, such as guides or articles, to expand on the topics covered.

Step 4: Choose the right evaluation methods

Of course, training necessarily involves an assessment of what has been learned.

Admittedly, this isn't a competition or a classroom. However, there's no escaping this formality: otherwise, how can learners and trainers be sure that new notions have been fully assimilated? And how can learning be adjusted as required?

When it comes to evaluation methods, there are the classics, such as the good old MCQ or online quizzes. You can also be more innovative and "field" oriented, by organizing role-playing games, or asking for portfolios and other projects.

☝️ In all cases, adapt to the business, and work to engage your learners!

Step 5: Ensure learner commitment

Once you've built your training program, it's out of the question to leave your learners to their own devices. Instead, make sure they attend regularly and maintain their interest in the course, to avoid dropping out.

We advise you to set up systems to regularly collect feedback. Encourage exchanges between students. This form of mutual support fosters a sense of belonging to a group, which is highly beneficial to motivation.

☝️ Use the results of the assessments mentioned in the previous step. If they're not very good, they can certainly reveal learning difficulties, but also a lack of interest in training.

Step 6: Track the performance of your training course

Here, we're not talking about learner performance, but about your training performance (even if the two are highly correlated).

The objective? To make your process part of a continuous improvement process: if you know what's going wrong, you'll simply do better next time.

So, it's important to ask the opinion of the people who are most affected: the employees (always the famous feedback story). However, we recommend that you cross-reference their feedback with the actual improvements (or lack of them) observed in the field. After all, sometimes an employee doesn't see himself or herself developing... even though his or her skills have clearly improved!

What about individualized training?

Today, there is a real need to individualize training paths, i.e. to adapt content, pace and teaching methods to the real needs of each learner.

With this approach, employees are not obliged to go through all the modules if certain skills have already been acquired. In this way, the feeling of boredom that is a major factor in dropping out is avoided.

But adapting content to such an extent requires meticulous attention to detail. Fortunately, this job is made easier by technology and the right software.

Which software to use to create your training courses?

To successfully complete all the steps described above, and also to individualize your training courses as much as possible, we recommend that you turn to an LMS (Learning Management System).

What does it mean ?

It's a platform developed to easily administer and distribute training content to learners. Long the prerogative of educational institutions, it is now winning over the hearts and minds of companies looking to enhance the skills of their teams, effectively and in line with their own challenges.

It has to be said that LMSs offer many advantages 🤩 :

• real performance gains in the implementation of training initiatives ;
• standardization of knowledge across the organization;
• customized training based on the employer's needs, but also on the employee's actual situation;
• real-time monitoring of learners' progress ;
• integration of communication functionalities (forums, messaging, etc.) to encourage collaboration;
• accessibility of modules anytime, anywhere;
• technologies to make learning more fun, and therefore more impactful (gamification, for example).

🛠️ Examples of LMS :

• 360Learning, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, stands out for its collaborative , learner-centered approach. Developed to enhance the effectiveness of your training courses, it enables users to create and share dynamic learning content very easily (17 minutes is all it takes to create a module!), adapted to the needs of their teams. As a result, courses designed on 360Learning record completion rates averaging 91%, a sign of real employee commitment.
  
  
• Didask stands out for its combination of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. With its authoring tool featuring pedagogical AI, you can rapidly develop high-performance content that will have a real impact on employees' day-to-day tasks. Didask also integrates adaptive learning, enabling you to build ultra-personalized training paths, adjusting in real time to individual needs and progress. And thanks to the Smart Analytics function, you can keep an eye on the performance of your training courses and learners.

See all software Learning Management System (LMS)

Professional training courses: what's in it for me?

Like your learners, we hope you've become more proficient today... on the subject of training paths 😉

By now, you know all the little secrets of how to build it effectively, including the most important of them all: using an LMS. Not only does this software help training managers to build learning paths quickly, but learning paths that are rudely efficient to boot!

Thanks to new technologies, courses become more immersive, interactive, personalized... in short, more fun. Enough to make your employees want to be at the top of the class. 🤓