What is the role of sales training in an organization? Is it just “nice-to-have” or a “must” for an organization? Is it an indulgence of the management whenever the budget permits or it is a part of its conscious strategy to achieve organizational goals? How sales training is perceived really depends on the organization. There are organizations that think it is really a waste of time and that sales team learn best while doing their job. There are other organizations that invest a lot of time and money to train members of their sales team. Let’s examine how important it is for organizations to impart training to their sales force.

Read More

Non-technical skills are generally referred to those soft- skills that are generic in nature like interpersonal, communication, team work, time management, problem solving or creative skills. Organizations are increasingly giving importance to non-technical skills of their employees at the workplace for optimizing human performance for organizational well-being and growth. Hence, non-technical training programs have found a prominent place in the HR training programs of organizations in recent years.

Read More

In recent years, many organizations have increasingly taken to adopting online training methods. Online training serves a way to create, foster and meet the needs of employees’ professional development. This is especially true for those organizations that need to deliver “hard skills” such as operating machinery, computer skills or safety standards to their employees.

Read More

As we have entered into a new year, here is a quick review of the most appreciated training blogs in the year 2010.These blogs focus on tips to strengthen training and make it more effective.

Read More

Basically, learning has been categorized into two forms – push learning approach and pull learning approach. Push is defined as the formal learning and pull as the informal learning. Earlier, in the elearning industry, the course designers just focused on delivering the content to the learners. The primary motive of this conventional mode of learning was to provide the learner with all the information on the topic. The courses lacked interactivity, irrespective of the learner finding the course interesting and engaging.

However, the technological advancement and competition in the elearning industry has led to the designing of interactive and engaging courses. People have started focusing on the pull learning approach, which has changed the structure or style of presenting the information. The courseware designers emphasize on embedding interactions in the courses, making them more appealing to the learner to pull the content.

The big question is which form of learning is best suited for a particular industry or a specific concept. For example, in security and safety industry, the learner has no other choice but to learn and memorize the legal issues and safety rules. Also, the time factor matters, the course designer has to prioritize on content delivery rather than making the course interactive and engaging. Hence, the learner has to study the course and clear all the assessments in a specified time.

Whereas, for soft skills training, the courses need to have interactivity and stimulation features to engage the learner. The learner needs to pull the content he/she requires and apply it differently. A well-illustrated scenario-based design for soft skills courses could help the learner easily understand the concepts and apply them in real situations.

I think the approach of teaching varies with respect to the type of industry, the target audience and the concepts. Besides, depending on the time factor and other requirements, there could be variations in content delivery and interaction levels.

What do you think about this evolution from push learning to pull learning?

Share your views!

Asma Zaineb

Sr. Executive – Business Development