Process-embedded learning set for big rise

LearningGuide Solutions | Milton Keynes, UK | 24 July 2007

Eighty seven percent of business are expecting to increase the amount of organisational learning that takes place within working processes, according to a recent survey carried out by LearningGuide Solutions, a provider of workplace performance support systems.

LearningGuide Solutions asked visitors to its Web site to predict how the amount of learning in their organisation that occurs during and within working processes is likely to change in the future. The results were compelling with sixty percent predicting a large-scale shift to process-embedded learning and a further twenty seven percent predicting an increasing reliance on process-embedded learning. Just thirteen percent predicted either less or an unchanged reliance on process-embedded learning.

According to LearningGuide Solutions UK managing director, Joseph White: “workers are today faced with greater levels of change in the workplace due to new systems and working procedures. Traditional training methods are inadequate in providing sustainable learning and support for workers. It is no surprise that business is predicting this large-scale shift in how they ensure their workers are able adapt to change and adopt and new skills.”

White went on to call for further research into the new demands being placed on workforces so that the learning industry can better prepare for and accelerate new approaches and methods to serve business better.

Process-embedded learning is defined as learning that takes place during work, right at the moment of need and as an integral part of a workflow or a task itself. White added: “workers today have less time to spend taking training courses and when new knowledge is needed to complete a task it is increasingly unreasonable to ask them to stop what they are doing to take courses or training modules. People need immediate answers to their queries. Embedding learning deep into working processes, as part of the work people do, has the potential to dramatically increase the performance of businesses and better equip workforces to adapt to change, such as the introduction of new computer systems.”

LearningGuide Solutions’ research into the changing reliance on process-embedded learning was conducted between January and April 2007.