Month: September 2021

What if we were all SMEs? Training on a small scale

 

The majority (56%) of the employees who trained during the Covid are in large companies (2,000 or more), compared to about a quarter in companies with 10 to 49 employees, according to the study “Impact de la crise sanitaire sur les mobilités, les projets, les aspirations professionnelles, les compétences et le travail” (Impact of the health crisis on mobility, projects, professional aspirations, skills and work) conducted from March 2020 to May 2021 by the Céreq and coordinated by Ekaterina Melnik-Olive. Yet their needs in terms of tools and training are just as important as those of large companies, and sometimes even more impactful. So what if we were all SMEs?

 

The Swiss Federation for Continuing Education FSEA examined the influence of the coronavirus crisis on continuing education in SMEs earlier this year. According to the study, which was published on 10 May 2021, “a majority of companies attribute a high degree of importance to continuing education in coping with the effects of the pandemic.” As with large companies, “one third of SMEs surveyed indicate that employees need new or different skills”. Thus, training is an issue for all. However, SMEs are often obliged to make a quick return on the costs of training their employees, their expectations are immediate. Their employees therefore need concrete training that can be activated quickly. Increasing the skills of their teams is a race against the clock and against the constantly accelerating evolution of the markets. They are therefore looking for agile, digital solutions covering a variety of subjects, to meet the needs of their teams and their constraints.

 

Finally, what SMEs are looking for is a need that can be found in all companies, and it is a common benefit to demand that training provides a concrete and immediate benefit. To meet this legitimate demand, digital learning is an ideal solution, because training then becomes massive and accessible quickly, from anywhere, and for everyone. In addition to this increased accessibility, providing employees with a solution that can be accessed at the click of a button also saves a considerable amount of time, compared to face-to-face training systems. Employees can learn about different subjects from their workplace in just a few minutes.

 

Thus, we would all benefit from demanding training as much as SMEs do in terms of cost effectiveness and usefulness. Training on a “small scale” is just as necessary and impactful for business transformation, especially in the long term. If SMEs need solutions that can be activated quickly to meet their immediate needs, then digital learning solutions will be able to make training an automatic and a tool to prepare SMEs to become… large companies.

5 essential courses to sustainably transform the company through training

 

The ecological transition is an important axis of transformation for us, but also for the rest of the world. On the occasion of the Sustainability Week, which took place from 20 to 24 September 2021, discover the 5 essential courses to initiate the ecological transition of your company.

 

  • To learn is to understand

The causes of the ecological crisis are the first basics to acquire in order to understand the extent of the problem. Climate, pollution, biodiversity: the world’s ecosystems are in danger, and this is largely due to our social and economic system. The sustainable transformation of a company can only be effective if we also transform our personal and professional habits. The course “Understanding the ecological crisis“, co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), aims to provide the keys to understanding the ecological crisis, to enable professionals to understand the mechanisms at the origin of the ecological crisis, their interactions and their consequences.

Understanding the environmental crisis

  • Biodiversity, an often neglected natural capital 

After understanding the extent of the ecological crisis, it is important to identify what the ecological crisis is jeopardising. Businesses need biodiversity to operate smoothly and sustainably. Yet businesses affect it as much as they depend on it. Biodiversity is essential to the proper functioning of all ecosystems, yet it is threatened by the ecological crisis.  It is therefore time to act to protect it. Thus, the Coorpacademy course “Protection of biodiversity: an asset for companies“ transmits the best practices to preserve and enhance this natural capital, and allows all employees to be initiated into the challenges of the ecological transition.

Protecting biodiversity: an asset for companies

 

  • Transform in order to last

Are you up to date on the origins of the ecological crisis and its impact on biodiversity? It is time to learn how to transform the company. Our contemporary economic system, which is based on a model of infinite growth, is no longer viable. It is therefore crucial to understand how the company can reinvent itself to become sustainable? Thanks to the course “Preparing the company for the environmental transition“ co-edited with the College of Sustainable Development Directors (C3D), you will be able to guide the transformation through essential tools for the transition and by adopting the right reflexes in the face of change. 

Preparing the company for the environmental transition

 

  • From a straight line to a virtuous circle

To go further and really revolutionise the current economic model, we recommend the course “The circular economy: from a straight line to a virtuous circle” co-edited with MySezame. Indeed, if we evolve in a world of finite resources, it has its limits and we are beginning to see these limits. It is therefore time to rethink our linear economy in order to transform it into a virtuous and above all, sustainable circle. 

The Circular Economy: From a Straight Line to a Virtuous Circle

 

  • What does this mean in practice?

Once you have developed and tested your theoretical knowledge of sustainable transformation, it is time to look at CSR approaches. Starting a CSR approach depends on each company. Each company can act on its own scale and have a greater or lesser impact on its sector, but how do you start or transform your own CSR approach? To guide you, discover through the Coorpacademy course “Sustainable transformation: success stories and business cases“ 3 very different companies that have integrated CSR into their strategy based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A course to give you the keys to action to positively impact society.

Sustainable Change: Success Stories and Business Cases

 

Large-scale training is essential to transform the company. By massively training employees on crucial sustainable development issues, and by raising awareness of the consequences that our human activities can have on ecosystems, we are gradually changing the rules of the game; and it is by sustainably transforming the company that we will be able to play longer. To go further, discover Coorpecology, the online training platform dedicated to sustainable transformation!

The HR themes of the recovery: what are the skills to develop to go back to work serenely?

 

September is the end of the vacations and the return to the office, but it is also the time to start all over again, the beginning of a new chapter. This new school year is particular, it follows a long period where individuals and companies had to adapt in record time. In a world in upheaval, what are the key HR issues of 2021? What skills are already essential to meet the challenges of the new year?  Let’s discover the chapter that is being written.

 

Transforming to last

The list of skills you can develop by accessing the more than 1,800 courses available in our premium content catalog covers all those deemed indispensable by the World Economic Forum for 2025.

This year, the most sought-after topics on our platforms reflect the upheavals that companies and their organizations are facing. The key competencies to support managerial, digital, cultural and organizational transformations are widely represented in the catalog, as shown by the top 5 competencies covered in terms of number of courses offered.

Continuous learning to evolve in a changing world 

Learning allows you to progress and evolve, and in a context as changing as the one we know today, it is a key to ensuring the relevance of the skills you will develop to face the challenges that the future holds.

So which courses make you want to learn the most? Let’s find out in the top 5 most played courses of 2021:

  1. The course “Communicate effectively to collaborate better” co-edited with Dunod Formation, which gains 2 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  2. The Coorpacademy course “Big Data”, which loses 1 place compared to the 2020 ranking, but which remains a must!
  3. The course “Adopt an agile culture” published by Coorpacademy, which enters the Top 5 by gaining 4 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  4. The course “Solving complex problems with the 4S method” co-edited with Bernard Garrette and Olivier Sibony, which also makes a triumphant entry in this Top 5 2021, gaining 10 places compared to the 2020 ranking.
  5. The course “1 hour to stop stressing and stay zen” co-edited by Dunod Formation, which remains in the Top 5 despite losing one place compared to the 2020 ranking

Key skills for the future 

Training plays a crucial role in ensuring that your employees develop their skills and adapt to the new expectations of the job market.

In view of the top 5 skills consumed in the 2nd quarter of 2021, our learners are already ready to serenely apprehend the uncertainties of tomorrow’s world:

Topics that are on the rise

The skills found in the top 5 skills consumed in 2021 do not vary so much from those whose consumption is growing fastest in Q2 2021. The need to meet new employee expectations and adapt to new ways of working is only intensifying. Not surprisingly, digital literacy skills are on the rise, as the digital transformation of companies is never done. 

The start of the HR season will not take place without the transformation of companies, and consequently, not without an increase in the skills of all employees. To accompany them in the changes that are already concrete, soft skills will be essential.

Thus, to apprehend the start of the 2021 school year, we recommend:

  • To know and understand the technological evolutions that are taking place more and more rapidly;
  • Develop your ability to identify, understand and react appropriately to the emotions of others in order to promote team cohesion;
  • Demonstrate flexibility and agility to respond effectively to current and future developments
  • Successfully leverage relevant company data to create value
  • Manage your teams in the best conditions, including remotely, while making good use of diversity
  • To learn continuously on Coorpacademy, to increase your skills while having fun!

It is better to have 1 engaging course than 1000 boring courses

Most Digital Learning providers rely on a platform that provides a large library of content from various experts to cover as many topics as possible. While this may be a useful argument for HR decision-makers looking to provide employees with as much training content as possible, is it really the best approach to effective learning?

Wanting to learn

Do you remember, in high school, when looking at the clock slowed down time? Strangely enough, as soon as you participated, time returned to its normal course… Today, thanks to cognitive science, we can explain this phenomenon in a rational way. During our schooling, we get used to learning in a passive way, sitting on our chair, raising our hand and waiting for someone to give us the right – or wrong – answer. This pedagogical approach is based on the transmission of knowledge, and is centered on the teacher, who comes to deliver his knowledge in a unilateral way. The exchange is restricted, participation is a privilege. Beyond the inequalities that passive learning creates – and reinforces – within a class, we want to address the reasons why this method of learning is ineffective in terms of deep learning and retention of information.

 

At Coorpacademy, our pedagogical team, at the origin of the creation and co-edition of all the courses of our premium content catalog, relies on active learning. As you will have understood, this pedagogical approach is centered on the learner, and not on the teacher. Our quiz-based courses are based on the flipped learning method: we ask the questions, and it’s up to the learner to draw on their knowledge to test their skills! Because the learner is also involved in the learning process, his or her cognitive biases are more stimulated, which will encourage attention and retention of information. From then on, the learner is committed to his training, which he sees as a real opportunity to progress, for his own benefit. 

Engaging and quality content

What differentiates Coorpacademy courses from all the other courses that you may play in your life, is the quality and relevance of the content to your training needs. Indeed, if our unique pedagogy and our functionalities borrowed from gaming are key assets to engage learners, the quality and the relevance of the content of our courses are essential for a real rise in competence.

To ensure that our courses deliver truly effective content, our educational team is still on the job. Thus, all the courses in our catalog are created by our pedagogical team or co-created with partner publishers, experts on certain subjects. Moreover, if you wish to know more about the recipe of Coorpacademy courses, we advise you to read the interview of Solène Rascle, educational engineer. Everything that is given to learn: the reading of documents, the viewing of our short course videos, and the course questions are read and reread by our pedagogical engineers, who carry out an important work of verification of sources, to ensure the relevance of the information contained in the course.

Stimulate curiosity

Continuous learning is about being curious throughout your life. Curiosity is an essential quality to progress, because if we focus on what we already know, we don’t have the opportunity to evolve. So our courses are also designed to stimulate the learners’ curiosity. As soon as they answer a question, a screen to explain the answer appears. Whether the answer is right or wrong, one element always appears: a “Did you know? This insert is an opportunity to complete the answer while amusing the learner with general or unusual information.

This little insert is also a way of saying to our learners: keep learning! Sure, you got the right answer, but learning never stops, there is always information that can add to your knowledge, and that’s why continuous learning is essential to progress.

 

 

In conclusion, for effective learning, interaction with course content is far more impactful than interaction with a large number of courses. The more learners are stimulated in their learning, the more effective the courses will be. With the active learning mode, the cognitive engagement of learners is reinforced by the manipulation of information, or by an action on their part. Thus, their attention is required, not to say solicited. In short, it is better to have 1 very engaging course, which makes the learner interact with the learning material, than to follow 1000 courses where the only interaction is that of your mouse clicking on pause, because you stopped following what was said 10 minutes ago.

10 questions to ask yourself to build a digital learning request for proposal

 

Writing a request for proposal (RFP) is not an exercise that can be improvised! If you are currently reading this introduction, it is because you are looking for a digital learning solution to meet specific needs. The more concise and clear your request is, the better the proposals will be adapted to your needs. However, be careful not to be too specific to leave room for creativity!

So at Coorpacademy, we have worked together with our sales team to provide you with the best advice to build your digital learning RFP! Ready to take notes?

 

  1. Who am I?

    To start writing your RFP, don’t hesitate to provide some context! Describing your company and the environment in which you operate is a good introduction to better understand your challenges. This first part allows you to get to the heart of the matter: the key objectives of the project you wish to implement.

  2. Why do I need a digital learning solution?

    If you are writing an RFP, it is because you have key objectives concerning the training of your employees, and more broadly, objectives for the transformation of your company. Define them clearly, so that the proposals you receive will meet your objectives precisely. Do not hesitate to define a priority objective, if this is the case, and to detail the different key points.

  3. Who is this solution for?

    Training your employees is essential. But not all employees learn in the same way, do not have the same training time or are simply not concerned by the same learning themes. Therefore, do not hesitate to detail the profile of your target population: what functions are they composed of? What are the different levels of seniority? And so on. Once you have defined the target population, don’t forget to specify the number. This is crucial to ensure that the solutions proposed to you are adapted to your expectations in terms of content but also in terms of price!

  4. What are the key issues I want to address in my training program?

    In order to meet your strategic objectives, you need to identify the key themes that you want to make available to your employees. If your population is divided into several job types and the skills and themes are varied, it is useful to specify the themes by target population! Are you looking to develop the soft skills of your employees and make them more agile, creative or adaptable? Or are your needs more focused on developing hardskills, such as mastering a new computer language or learning a new foreign language? By specifying your needs, the proposals that will be made to you will be able to concretely offer you impactful and individualized content. Ideal for engaging your learners in your (next) e-learning solution!

  5. How quickly do I want to make the solution available to my employees?

    From the moment you issue your call for tenders, you issue a need. In order to specify your request, it is essential to define a deployment schedule, as well as its modalities. When do you want to make your digital learning solution available to your entire target population? This information allows service providers to propose a deployment schedule that is adapted to your expectations, based on available resources.

  6. How is my training ecosystem currently constituted?

    To maximize the usefulness of your next digital learning solution, it is important to choose the way you want to deploy it. Do not hesitate to specify in your request for proposal how your training ecosystem is organized and how this new solution will be integrated into this ecosystem in order to facilitate the implementation of the chosen solution. Do you want to create a new platform that is accessible on all media or do you want to integrate this solution with your learning management system? These elements will allow providers to give you a complete and precise answer on the possibilities of deployment and on the time needed to make the solution accessible to the greatest number of people.

  7. What are the key features I want in my digital learning solution?

    Finding the right e-learning solution for you is a first step, but it must also meet the needs of your employees! Engaging learners in training is crucial for effective and sustainable skills development. To ensure that the solution you implement is the most suitable, it is useful to specify your expectations in terms of functionality. What are the expected differentiating elements? Among the multitude of choices you have on the digital learning market, are you looking for a gamified platform, which uses the codes of video games to engage learners, or do you prefer to choose a platform that relies on a catalog of content designed through a specific pedagogy and focused on the learner? These questions are essential to choosing the right platform for you!

  8. In what format do I want to receive the responses to my RFP?

    Once you have clearly defined your expectations for the proposed solution, define the expected response methods for your call for tenders. To ensure compliance and to save time when evaluating the various proposals, you can specify the format in which you would like to receive the responses from the service providers and in what structure.

  9. How does my decision process work?

    Finally, do not hesitate to detail your decision process, i.e. to communicate to the providers the desired response date as well as the next steps in the process, so that the project proceeds in the best possible conditions.

  10. How can potential providers reach me?

    You can close your call for tenders by giving service providers the opportunity to contact you via a contact section, so that they can ask you questions if necessary or send you any information that may be useful in your decision-making process.

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