From movie-like videos to hands-on
hacker contests, fresh approaches to skills development have gussied up the
world of IT training.
For Jerome Provensal, it training hasn’t
always been a pleasant experience. In fact, “stuck-in-a-classroom training
courses taught by semi-inspired instructors of uneven quality” is how
Provensal, director of software development at ITG, describes much of his IT
education.
The good news, he says, is that dull
approaches to training are fast becoming a thing of the past. Instead, more and
more companies are granting IT professional access to simulated environments,
cloud-based e-learning modules, high-quality video productions and even
Hollywood green-screen technology to earn certifications, upgrade their skills
and otherwise advance their careers.
“New
grads joining the workforce who have been raised on a diet of Khan Academy-type
courses are more likely to embrace the bite-size video model,”
There are a number of variables helping to
push staid PowerPoint presentations into history’s dustbin. “Innovative IT
training programs got their start because of cost-cutting measures,” says
Kendra Lee, president of the KLA Group, an IT training and consulting firm in
Centennial, Colo. As IT managers contend with shrinking budgets and skeleton
staffs, many can no longer afford to enroll their workers in month long,
off-site workshops. At the same time, new delivery mechanisms, such as cloud
technology, are enabling companies to offer online courses anytime, anywhere,
and at a fraction of the cost of on-premises programs.
Also driving innovation in the IT training
sector is a new generation of techie. “New grads joining the workforce who have
been raised on a diet of Khan Academy-type courses are more likely to embrace
the bite-size video model,” says Provensal, referring to a popular
not-for-profit educational organization and website.
Video Killed the In-person Training Star
Provensal would know. In December 2011, he
signed up for Lynda.com, an online training service that’s wildly popular among
techies because of its hands-on, all-you-can-eat approach. He has viewed videos
on everything from Photoshop and Word-Press to jQuery and data analysis.
At a starting price of $25 per month,
Lynda.com members receive unlimited access to nearly 1,600 courses encompassing
more than 85,000 video tutorials. These tutorials, which range in length from
one hour to 20 hours, are led by experts in specific disciplines, rather than
trainers, and have a decidedly movie-like quality to them. Each video is
divided up into 10-minute chapters bite-size chunks that allow members to
easily search for relevant content, or jump in and out of a training session
for a quick Share Point refresher or MySQL query.
Website:
Lynda.com
It’s a self-directed, piecemeal approach to
training that’s particularly appealing to today’s typically independent,
supervision-resistant techies. In fact, since launching its online training
service in 2002, Lynda.com has enlisted more than 3,000 corporate clients and
more than 2 million individual members. And content is always being refreshed,
with nearly eight new courses every week.
“While it’s always beneficial to have live
instructors that you can ask for help, a lot of IT professionals are very good
at teaching themselves,” says Lee. “Actually, a lot of them prefer [video-based
training]. They just like that environment.”
Comic Relief
Content is also undergoing an extreme
makeover in some surprising places. Consider Broadway Bank in San Antonio. In
the past, Diana Huntsman, Broadway Bank’s vice president and information
security officer had a simple formula for teaching employees not to scribble
their passwords on Post-it notes: “pages and pages of materials, a question and
answer period and PowerPoint.”
That was the case until Huntsman began
rolling out Digital Defense’s SecurED program in late January 2012. SecurED is
a series of 12 online training modules that are designed to help companies
reduce the risk of security breaches. What makes SecurED different, however, is
that Digital Defense partnered with Hollywood actor Fred Willard, of Best in
Show and Waiting for Guffman fame, and Emmy award-winning comedy writer T. Sean
Shannon to develop highly entertaining training modules. While there’s nothing funny
about the topics tackled physical security, phishing, social engineering
viewers are warmed up with a comedy skit before delving into serious subject
matter. As a result, Huntsman says the SecurED program promises to be a
pleasant switch from “humdrum” material to “humor that is really going to
capture our employees’ attention.” In fact, Huntsman suspects that SecurED has
the potential to become a powerful recruiting tool for the financial
institution.
“As the younger workforce comes in, they
expect something different from IT training,” says Huntsman. “They expect
training to be faster and more concise, so I think SecurED is going to be a
very good way to accommodate that need.”
Educational Experimentation
But for every fresh-faced college grad
enamored with training videos, there’s an IT professional whose learning style
is best suited to hands-on experimentation. Rob Wittes is that type of learner.
CareerBuilder’s manager of business intelligence development, Wittes recently
graduated from the company’s Leadership
Development Series, a three-year, part-time
program that offers training in finance, law, sales and marketing. Whereas
traditional training courses are typically taught by in-house personnel, the
Leadership Development Series, held in CareerBuilder’s Chicago headquarters, is
led by professors from institutions like Booth University College and
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Educational
Experimentation
Class size is limited to 30 students, and
courses consist of a lecture, lab time and peer review. But it’s the program’s
hands-on approach that makes it unique, says Wittes. Many class exercises
involve breaking into groups to create a new product or service, and then
devising a strategy for bringing that offering to market as a CareerBuilder
competitor.
“There isn’t a portion of these classes
where you don’t get hands-on work,” says Wittes. “Everything is taught in a
collaborative way that gives you exposure to other areas of the company and
other employees.” Getting your hands dirty with real-world case studies and
marketplace scenarios is critical to any IT professional’s continuing
education, according to Lee. “The one thing that is most important for IT
professionals is to have hands-on time,” she says. “Training that is mostly
listening just won’t work with techies.”
