Organisations right across Australia spend billions of dollars every year on training and upskilling their staff. Whether it’s in-office lectures, hands-on workshops or online training sessions, employers contribute a significant amount of their annual budgets to employee learning and development (L&D). So it goes without saying that you need to get it right.

The problem with our modern, digital-first workplace is that the traditional ways of training no longer match up with the pace of work. Jobs are becoming more complex, deadlines are getting shorter and staff are finding their clients are becoming increasingly demanding.

Much like how employees have learnt to adopt a rapid-fire approach to completing their tasks, microtraining works in a very similar way – but for learning.

What is Microtraining exactly?

Think about how you typically view corporate L&D. It’s essentially ‘session-based’ learning that involves an employee taking a course – either outside of work hours or at the office – for a block of time. This compartmentalised training method may have been effective in the days before digital interconnectivity, but more and more we are seeing the positive benefits of integrated microtraining.

So, instead of spending the morning in a face-to-face training session before returning to your usual duties in the afternoon, microtraining allows learning to occur in real-time and in conjunction with your work activities. This means the mini lessons can be applied immediately to a project or task.

Transforming the traditional idea of  L&D

This ‘learning in the flow of work’ requires an overhaul of long-held ideas about what L&D should entail. “In order to achieve learning in the flow of work, your training program should be accessible, on-demand and curated carefully,” writes Tristan De Vera.

This means that learning resources must be available when the learner needs them. They should also be relevant to the learner’s particular needs.

Is this the end of training as we know it?

Does this mean that L&D sessions spanning everything from a few hours to several weeks are no longer necessary? Not at all. There will always be a need for traditional training formats, but the key is that this learning method is no longer the only option.

Instead, quick and bite-sized training can occur in the form of a short video or a visually led infographic that explains the steps to complete a certain task. Just like class-based learning, microtraining is still valuable and it is arguably more effective because it allows the learner to apply their new knowledge immediately.

We are already Microtraining every day

There will no doubt be those who insist corporate training can only occur in a standard classroom setting. But what they fail to realise is that they are already experiencing microtraining in their daily lives.

That how-to guide you Googled earlier this week? The YouTube explainer video that helped you streamline a time-consuming task? The easy-to-digest signage that showed you how to properly wash your hands during the COVID-19 outbreak? All training tools – condensed into a micro format for our fast-paced, time-poor lives.

Learn more about how microtraining can transform your organisation by downloading our eBook, L&D in the Remote Age: How to Transition to Real-time Digital Learning.

PM-Partners has more than 200 microtraining modules to be released through 2021. To find out more, contact PM-Partners online or call us on 1300 70 13 14 today.