Editors Blog

Informal Learning presentation:

This was by L&D guru Bob Mosher from LearningGuide Solutions USA seemed to strike a chord with the audience. Mosher highlighted some of the shortfalls in training that were the fault of both employers and the training departments.

He explained that training boils down to five needs by employees:

- when learning for the first time
- when wanting to learn more
- individuals try to recall or apply previous learning
- when things change
- when things go wrong

The latter three are all post-training session, Mosher said, and without proper follow-up training, knowledge retention by employees would drop by half within 24 hours, half-again in the next 48 hours, and continue dropping to just 20% of the original amount within three weeks.

To stop this, employees need 'informal learning', with support from line managers and L&D staff, to keep what they remembered fresh in their minds.

Mosher added that most post-training tools just rehash the information from a "who/what/when/where/why" basis, rather than "how", which is what the employee needs.

"Often people want to remember and apply this information after learning it, but managers and training departments instead talk louder and slower to them, and that's not what they need," he said.


Innovative approaches to Learning and Development presentation:

Here we had Robin Hoyle from Learnworks and Darren Benzani from Lexisnexis Butterworths admitting that recent "innovations" had been shallow at best, from technological upgrades to schemes aimed to cover as many different types of businesses as possible rather than being fitted to one particular client.

Hoyle said L&D's love of "new shiny things" was reflected by their habits of dropping training schemes for more up-to-date ones without allowing employees to get used to the system and reap the benefits associated with it.

Benzani meanwhile boasted that his training budget was doubling next year, and that he was able to work independently of HR, instead reporting to sales and marketing. He chalked down Lexisnexis' success in recruitment to his changing hiring goals from 80% experience-based to 70% behavioural because, he said, you can always give people with talent some experience, but you can't give people with experience the talent.


Exhibition:

There were a large number of venues stalls from all over the UK, ranging from hotels in the Cotswalds to the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester (with the football team's European Champions Cup on show). A variety of team training days, although nothing out of the ordinary, ranged from adventure sports through to team gourmet cooking (and dining).

Highlights included said Euro Cup, a model of a Formula One car (complete with fake wheel to be replaced by daring conference-goers), and a large chocolate fountain which  contributed to the highest footfall for the conference.


World of Learning Awards:

A few organisations pulled multiple trophies at the eight annual awards presentation. The BBC grabbed Bespoke Learning Solution and Coaching Programme of the year, while Reed Learning took out Learning Provider and Learning Organisation of the year. A few muffled conversations followed RBS Insurance winning Blended Learning Solution of the year (given recent media coverage), but overall the awards went off without a hitch.