Talking to sales people at the 2010 Learning Technologies exhibition I gained the distinct impression of an industry that feels it's doing rather well. Of course, sales people want you to think they're doing rather well - but with more and more companies turning to technology to save them from the expense of face-to-face training there seemed to be plenty of business going on.
Hot topics at Learning Technologies
Having made our major technology choices three years ago, I was at the show more to keep a weather eye on the industry and to check that Mott MacDonald wasn't missing a trick. Reassuringly, the theme that most jumped out at me - localisation - is something I've spent a lot of time on over the past 18 months. Now, that could be selective vision, like car buyers who suddenly see the same model as theirs at every turn, but I definitely felt more of a buzz around stands where the vendors were discussing localisation than I detected elsewhere - apart from those virtual learning stands perhaps...
"Localisation isn't just a hot topic at Mott MacDonald. Other organisations are also realising that they need to do more than create and distribute learning material - they need to communicate messages."
Our 10-strong team is involved in a lot of localisation right now. Half of the team is responsible for delivering training to our 14,000 Global staff, and they've been working hard to create 15 different localised versions of a suite of seven induction courses.
Getting our message across
If my sense of LT was accurate, localisation isn't just a hot topic at Mott MacDonald. Other organisations are also realising that they need to do more than create and distribute learning material - they need to communicate messages. The Mott MacDonald Group serves the public and private sectors worldwide, and we've been doing a lot lately to restructure ourselves regionally and to shake off our reputation as something of a Eurocentric organisation - or Croydon-centric to those based elsewhere in the UK! Training has to be part of that change - we can't simply send out material in English and expect it to communicate the right message.
Proper localisation is one way we're getting our message across, and we've had really positive feedback indicating that whereas people in the regions once felt they were outside looking in, they feel 'brought into the Group' when they get training materials tailored to their local language and culture.
This has proved a longer and more complex process than we anticipated - not least because it's hard to get good translation services for some of the regions where we operate.
"Whereas people in the regions once felt like they were outside looking in, they feel 'brought into the Group' when they get training materials tailored to their local language and culture."
We've had to grapple with languages such as Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish, Taiwanese and Indonesian, as well as three flavours of English! Also, we're a management, engineering and development consultancy, and few translation companies seem to understand our business language or corporate culture. The upshot is that when we have e-learning translated for us, it loses something. The message gets lost. So we've ended up doing a lot of localisation for ourselves, relying on the goodwill of local engineers and subject matter experts in our regional businesses.
Web-enabled localisation
Fortunately, using a web-based platform like Mohive makes this much easier for us to manage, so we're feeling pretty happy about our choice of content creation system at the moment. In fact, we're even starting to use it to produce courses for our JV partners and clients, to squeeze a little more value out of the licence.
"We've ended up doing a lot of localisation for ourselves... fortunately, using a web-based platform like Mohive makes this much easier for us to manage."
To return to virtual learning, we've been rolling out a programme of WebEx Training Centre sessions recently. These are an example of how we are looking for ways to offer our people smaller, more immediate training when they need it, without the need for a trainer to travel around the world. WebEx, and other virtual learning technologies, were popular at Learning Technologies - to my mind because they allow you to deliver live, almost face-to-face training, while reducing training delivery costs. Virtual training also allows us to set up training at short notice, when it’s needed, rather than when it may be too late!
Towards Just In Time learning
Like many, I have a vision of Just In Time training - a knowledge base of bite-size information snippets that our staff can access from their desktops. We may not be there yet, but getting our regions used to creating rapid e-learning content, and getting our audiences familiar with screen-based learning activities that answer their on-the-job questions are steps in the right direction. Perhaps Learning Technologies 2011 will see the launch of that knowledge base widget I've been dreaming about.