Kicking off our new weekly round-up of learning and development (L&D) news and views, Martin Couzins provides some highlights of what has been happening.
Work experience has been catapulted into the limelight this week as the Government revised some of the terms of its work experience programmes, while skills minister John Hayes also announced steps to improve the quality of apprenticeships for employers and apprentices.
Leadership also hit the headlines, with two studies showing the impact of effective leadership on organisational success.
The Chartered Management Institute released findings from a survey of 4,500 managers, which showed that companies that invested in the development of leaders saw increases of up to 32% in people performance and 23% in organisational performance.
Meanwhile, TrainingZone reported that managers lack faith in the skills and capabilities of senior leaders to tackle the challenges their organisations face.
Research findings from leadership and business psychology consultancy Edgecumbe Consulting Group showed that only 36% of managers believe that their business is in safe hands and only 40% of them are feeling positive about the prospects for their organisation in the current economic climate.
Last week also saw the news that Hewlett Packard has launched HP Institute, partnering with UK schools, colleges and universities to boost IT skills for more than 20,000 people over the next four years.
In technology, Curatr launched an upgrade to its social learning and publishing platform. Janet Clary, an analyst at Belsin Associates, has reviewed the product, which uses visualisation navigation and social and gamification elements to engage learners.
Finally, all the presentations and videos of speakers at the Learning Technologies 2012 conference and exhibition have now been uploaded and are free to access.
Views
A great debate has kicked off over on Training Zone [registration required] about the 70:20:10 model. Robin Hoyle acts as myth buster, and some big thinkers in L&D such as Charles Jennings have also weighed in.
It is a fascinating debate as L&D shifts its focus on to informal and self-directed learning. Incidentally, Jennings credits Alan Tough as one of the originators of the concept through his work with adult learners – you can read Tough’s work on his site.
In “The workplace as a real-time classroom”, Chris Channer, a consultant at organisational development specialists Ipso Consulting, looks at the potential for learning from “workplace distractions”. Rather than trying to avoid such distractions, Channer says they should be embraced. Read the article on the Training Journal website.
Consultant and author Clive Shepherd reminds L&D professionals that training has a purpose, and that it is okay to call yourself a trainer, as L&D shifts to talking predominantly about learning.
Jane Hart runs the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies, a free resource for those interested in learning tools and technologies. Jane is a regular blogger and this week provides a useful round-up of learning articles that caught her eye in February.
Events
HRD, the annual development event for HR and L&D professionals from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is on 25-26 April. A preview at People Management highlights the importance of learning technologies. A CIPD press release also provides some more background on this year’s event.
L&D manager at marketing and technology agency LBI, Sukh Pabial, has launched an unconference for L&D professionals. You can find out why on his blog.
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This week sees the Social Learning Conference take place in London. Find out more about who is attending and speaking and follow the #slconf hashtag on Twitter.
Finally, for all of you on Twitter, there is a regular Twitter chat on Thursday afternoons. The #chat2learn Twitter chat involves a mix of UK and US L&D practitioners and is useful for learning, sharing and connecting with new people. Find out more on the #chat2learn site.
