Training Industry 2012 Trends - A Look in the Rear View Mirror

[Paul Terlemezian]

Training Industry has done an accurate job of looking in the rear-view mirror - which I believe is critically important to do. There is much that can be learned from the past and we can do so without being shackled by it.

Here is what they have to say Training Industry 2012 Trends.

• Spend for Training Services Remains Conservative

• Job Market Remains Static

• Evolution of Learning Portals

• Formalizing Informal Learning

• Growth of Gamification

• Social Badging, the New Tool of Recognition

• Growing Focus on Knowledge Retention

• Consolidation is a Key Strategy among Buyers and Suppliers

• Outsourcing Grows While Offshoring Retrenches

• Social Learning is Still a Facilitated Process
   

What do you think these trends mean when looking through the windshield? Here is my opinion:

 

1. Spend for training will trend downward while spend for performance will be the growth area

2. The Job market will decline internally and externally - the growth of small businesses will increase

3. Learning Portals will continue to evolve and blend - the goal is to make learning unobtrusive

4. Formalizing Informal Learning is self-defeating - try it if you must - your learners will hopefully continue to evade your attempts to saddle them and will continue to learn in new and engaging ways that you could not imagine - this is good - you can learn (informally) from what they do and fuel further innovation on their part

5. Growth of Gamification - yes - to the point that the distinction between gaming and working is indistinguishable (it's not about learning - it's about performance!)

6. Social badging will replace formal certification. I only need time and money to be certified whereas social badging requires others (in large quantities) to validate my relevance.

7. Knowledge Retention - I think this is squinting in the rear view mirror - the future is finding the new knowledge when you need it from whom you need it. The way we solved problems yesterday may not  be appropriate tomorrow. How much money can we risk on preserving old knowledge?

8. Consolidation is Key but valuations will be elusive - we need to learn how to secure the value of our knowledge, data (i.e. relationships) and decisions. Speed and accuracy will be the benchmarks.

9. Offshoring will grow only if our industry matures and focuses on what matters. Our choice is to thrive via global collaboration or isolate and cease to exist due to self-imposed damage.

10. All learning is a facilitated process - but no longer only from the top down - social made it outside -in and the future is bottom - up!

 

Challenge us - what do you believe?

[Zach Doppel]

We are going to include this in our next ACTA meeting trends discussion.