How are companies using digitial materials to train employees?

A growing number of organizations are adopting digital technologies to train their employees and improve operational efficiency. The advent of tablet computers has broadened the training possibilities for development managers, and the addition of traditional classroom work only expands learning potential.

As technology builds upon itself, companies are forced to implement strategies for effectively teaching new programs and work methods. For example, Global Knowledge, an IT development service, recently introduced a digital course for training professionals on Cisco's Network Security programs.

“Students will examine the necessity of a comprehensive security policy and how it affects the posture of the network,” Global Knowledge reported in a statement. “They will learn how to analyze and mitigate attacks and how to perform basic tasks to secure a small branch type office network using Cisco IOS security features available through web-based GUIs and the CLI on Cisco routers and switches.”

But this course is just one example of how organizations are leveraging digital products and learning materials to develop talent. And with a widening skills gap in the global workforce, the need to train employees in-house is increasingly imperative.

Furthermore, this trend is not limited to the private sector. Caspian Learning recently unveiled a new version of its powerful military training software. Called VBSWorlds, the program allows military and defense organizations to create virtual training scenarios that run on handheld tablets and mobile smartphones.

The software is currently being used by NATO to create simulations for maritime bombing operations, and it includes technology that allows any virtual training scenario to be swiftly published on the internet, including both iOS-based and Android devices.

“VBSWorlds is one of the few mobile training applications that has been completely designed from the very beginning to support and encourage actual behavior change,” said Lee Rushworth, a spokesman for Caspian Learning, “We're extremely proud that scenarios created with VBSWorlds can contain all the information found in PowerPoint slides, page-turners and traditional e-learning, whilst making their contents infinitely more engaging and effective.”

Once again, these are just some examples of how companies are leveraging new digital and online media to train and development their employees and organizational members. As technology continues to evolve, analysts expect reliance on such platforms to increase.