On the job training is no longer the exclusive purview of the trades. Our test-heavy, secondary-education system contributes to the need for OJT in every sector of the economy. For example, we learn that T. Rowe Price offers remedial writing (effective communication) to their new hires. And now for the punchline—the remedial-writing OJT is aimed at MBA’s.
eLearning OJT Infiltrates and Industry
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), the fastest growing industries include health and education, professional and services, and government. eLearning can bring employees up to speed quickly while reducing the costs of training and the compensatory and punitive costs associated with lack of proper knowledge.
Health and Education: Tens of thousands of regulations were added to Obamacare after its passage, and it’s impossible to keep up with the changes. Healthcare providers need on-demand information, often through mLearning. Without up-to-date information, the likelihood of lawsuits increases. As states adopt (or drop) Common Core (standard testing and reporting curriculum), educators learn how to implement new standards through “In-Service Training,” occurring several days throughout the school year and a week during the summer, sometimes out of town. When teachers learn through eLearning and social learning, administrators can divers the summer week of expenses toward teaching students.
Professional and Services: Obamacare has spawned a tax code that few understand, including accountants, CPAs, and tax attorneys. With tax season approaching and the forms recently released, eLearning provides the quickest way for tax preparers to get up to speed. MOOC’s have led to a rise in online legal education, and in Australia, some have proposed a combination of MOOCs and apprenticeship (what we used to call “reading for the law” to replace standard legal education.
Government: Throughout 2015, FDA will implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that will affect every facet of food production from farm to table. Government is providing online tutorials for those in the affected industries, and industry is pitching in with a MOOC series called FSMA Fridays.
OJT Is a Journey, not a Destination: OJT begins with onboarding, the first opportunity to make standards crystal clear. Thanks to mLearning and social learning, employees can take advantage of on-demand learning without interrupting their workday, saving significant outlays in training costs and improving efficiency and effectiveness. Further, they can identify go-to individuals through social learning. Jumping aboard today’s OJT bandwagon is a matter of changing paradigms and shifting resources, and its adoption rate is accelerating.
