So as we pack up our OHPs and put the lids back on our whiteboard pens (kidding), it's time to reflect on another packed year for the TrainingZone community and the L&D space as a whole. In the UK, government policies (obviously) played the main roles in shaping public and private L&D strategy, and the perceived increasing difficulty in attaining a university place shifted a lot of focus onto the apprenticeship and skills industry, which, of course had a knock-on effect for the rest of the training world too.
Our year kicked off with a story about working mums falling out of favour with prospective employers, but the doom and gloom didn't last too long as later in the month we reported that 83% of UK managers expected their budgets to either remain static or increase over the year ahead. As the year progressed it was a cash injection here, and budget cuts there, and despite universities struggling with admissions, the effects of that weren't quite what we thought. Nevertheless, there were calls for apprenticeships to be front and centre of businesses future plans.
The slightly tired mantra of 'doing less with more' was still kicking around in conversations at events such as Learning Technologies, HRD, TrainingZone Live and WOLCE; most businesses are struggling, but if I had my way there would be a mandatory requirement that the philosophy be recast as a chance to utilise the wealth of emerging technological opportunities that have become available in the training space in the last 12 months.
Self-directed learning has been another theme this year, in no small part thanks to the runaway success of the iPad and other tablets and smartphones. Whether this is a reaction to budget cuts or not is a tricky one to judge. My gut feeling is that whoever was running the country we would have come to the same conclusion: that new technologies and a bit of canny systems analysis can cut corners and make for a more engaged and immersive learning experience with less traditional pedagogical interaction. This makes for a more satisfactory outcome than it would with a particular political spin put on the situation.
Focusing on our own community, our most popular features were the tips, the guides, and the how-tos. This was also borne out in our member survey that ran in the summer; feedback was that this type of content was what you wanted more of, so we will duly oblige in 2012 and beyond. I believe this is because we are a community of people who are constantly looking for ways to improve our methods, ways to improve ourselves and our clients. This is something to be proud of.
Articles on leadership were also very well-read; the role of the modern leader is changing, and increasingly more people are required to lead, take responsiblity and lead themselves as well as other people. As the office environment becomes more fragmented, leadership values are more important than ever. Some may see it as it being more necessary than ever to ask a question of the establishment, some may see it as the proliferation of the role model, which means there are more examples than ever to look up to, into, and around.
Some may see L&D as suffering from a crisis of identity, but I think it's merely evolving. October's theme of organisational development threw up some interesting stories, and it seems to be a pertinent issue at the moment, as departments merge and job roles transform.
Next year? I'll think about that tomorrow.
