Accelerated Learning: Get new skills into your business faster

Big change places stress on every business whether it’s rapid growth or external forces. For every type of business, the pandemic has accelerated existing business trends such as digitisation and workplace flexibility and created new opportunities that need to be won.

For many organisations this means that established ways of working have quickly fallen short of what’s required to be successful for the 2020s, particularly in areas such as advanced digital skills and online communication that are now business essentials, and with regard to changing employee expectations of their relationship with the physical workplace.

The most in-demand skills for 2022 are in fields such as sales, digital marketing, project management, budgeting, visual design, video production, leadership and communication. This hot list reflects commercial pressures and priorities across the business world. Teams and individuals that can harness these skills are best placed to outperform their peers and competitors.

In a tight labour market like today’s, it’s often faster, more reliable and cost effective to develop the skills of existing employees that understand your organisations culture and marketplace, rather than recruit fresh talent.

But for this to be successful, educators need to step up to the mark as well. The rigid academic timetable beloved of many educational institutions looks like a relic from a bygone era. And online learning needs to deliver lasting results not just convenience and low-cost enrolments.

At Pitman Training we’re responding to the changing world of work with new programmes and more flexible ways of supporting student success. New programmes for web developers, software engineers and data analysts head up our #nextgen initiative to build the skills of the future, supporting individuals and organisations to quickly adapt to new ways of working.

For the accountants and administrators that Pitman Training has served for approaching two centuries, we’re providing updated technology skills, and a greater focus on data and analytics to reflect ongoing changes to these essential business functions.

We’ve recently launched a series of one-day masterclasses in our most popular business subjects to enable delegates to develop essentials skills at an accelerated pace.

Our investments combine the strength of our local campus and coaching offer, and the flexibility of our study plans, as well as our product range. We do this because many businesses report being frustrated that their previous training programmes have been too generic, not delivered a step change in ability or performance, or proven to be a waste of time and money.

At Pitman Training, our clients get targeted, practical learning and reinforcement over time that ensures lasting impact. Our Accelerated Learning approach means faster results of your business as new skills become part of your improved ways of working. It’s why we’re trusted by thousands of organisations each year to help their workforces meet the challenge of tomorrow.

If your business is changing faster than your people, we’re here to help. An exploratory conversation with our workforce development specialists can help identify whether we’re able to help get new skills into your business faster.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2022 edition of Business Times in Essex.