These terms basically describe the strategy of identifying the specific capabilities, competencies, and skills your workforce needs to ensure that your business will be successful and can sustain itself over the long-term, and then create a roadmap for the development of them.

Even though “corporate training” and “learning and development” are terms associated with this outcome, the methodologies are significantly different.

What’s working?

However, it’s been widely known for awhile now that corporate training doesn’t get businesses very far.

But we continue to use it anyway.

Now, the paradigm is shifting. Instead of offering corporate training opportunities, savvy businesses are turning to learning and development best practices.

No longer do you have to go through the motions of training from bygone years, with low expectations for ROI.

Here’s why you should ditch corporate training in favor of learning and development.

The learner as consumer

In the days of old, trainings generally consisted of long, boring sessions where the authority stood at the front of the room, bestowing his knowledge onto the participants.

But today’s employees are also consumers, and their expectations and behaviors have changed, thanks to companies like Google and Amazon.

They’ve created value from quick turnaround times and fast internet searches, vastly changing consumer expectations in the process. Your employees as learners demand this kind of “service,” too.

Therefore, there’s a need to provide valuable content by using the right tools in order to invest in their careers.

It’s not only about the content or the tool — but a good balance of them both.

Time-consuming trainings and cumbersome tools will not impress.

Learners expect stellar learning content and easy-to-use technology — and expect quick access to valuable information that is creative and transformative.

You need to deliver stellar content, with built-in social learning features. A tool like Magency can drive social learning through tools like polls, gamification, quizzes, while promoting the most important element of learning — your people.

Adopting the new model

Restrictive, formal, rigid — these are not words you want learners to use to describe your training practices.

However, that’s just how corporate training used to be.

Now, learning and development practices focus on delivery models that are all-pervasive, fluid and liberating.

People love to work in collaboration and to learn from each other. So when digitizing the so-called corporate training and now learning and development, you should not eliminate the human factor.

It’s not about the technology, but about the learner!

But learners are not the only ones to benefit from the adoption of learning and development.

Your organization can stay competitive by providing employees with an environment where they can continuously learn.

The role of the trainer

Instead of the training session teacher acting as the all-authoritative instructor, there’s a new role for this person to play: animator.

In essence, the leader becomes someone adept at using digital tools to “animate” the learning session.

This person inspires through creativity, helping to engage the audience of learners and making learning fun.

There’s been a shift in training paradigms. Did you notice?

Is your company behind the times or ahead of the game?

Even if you’re somewhere in between the two, you can benefit from shifting your mindset from corporate training to a learning and development culture.

If you do, your employees’ development will become the focus. Workplace training is about changing behavior and driving your teams to work as a community. Collaboration is crucial because it helps to shift group thinking.

Your business will then benefit from the increased skill and competency of your workforce and creative use of learning technologies.