With the massive changes occurring in the digital economy today, enterprises face a challenge in creating and maintaining a future-ready workforce. Traditional job skills training involves skills assessment and testing, in-person classroom instruction, and on-the-job training.
The confluence of digital transformation and pandemic-mandated remote work has had two effects. First, many of the roles that enterprises need to fill call for digital skill experts, which can be developed internally as well as recruited from outside. Second, in-person training has become impractical for many workers. Thus, enterprises need skills training that can be delivered effectively and efficiently online.
Online training has evolved from massively open online courses (MOOCs) to incorporate on-demand video content. At the same time, bootcamp-style training has been established as an effective style of training in digital economy skills. The structure of this training is the key to digital bootcamp benefits.
Active Learning With Online Bootcamps
Online bootcamps are designed for the same active learning environment with high impact as in-person bootcamps, as shown in the figure. Learners use self-paced videos and quizzes to prepare for the content of each chapter in each course.
They then participate in live virtual classrooms where instructors help them understand the material in each chapter. The learning platform lets them carry out hands-on lab exercises associated with each chapter and projects that may span material from more than one chapter.
The learning platform gives learners opportunities for live interaction with peers and teaching assistants to help them understand any difficult material. The lab and project assessments and chapter-end and course final exams take place online.
At the end of each course, the instructor verifies that each student has completed the course requirements satisfactorily to earn Simplilearn certification. Depending on the course, there may be an additional certification exam with an external party such as PMI or Axelos to let the learner earn an industry-standard certification such as PMP or ITIL.
Today, the two approaches have been blended into online digital bootcamps. These provide the individualized instruction of a bootcamp with the flexibility and reach of online delivery.
Typical Use Case in Enterprise Skilling
Here’s a typical use case for digital bootcamps in enterprise skilling:
A multinational technology consulting firm determined that it needed to upskill its consultants in skills relating to digital transformation in response to shifting demands from existing and prospective customers. They worked with a digital bootcamp provider to identify the skill gaps in their consultant workforce and develop a skilling program integrated with their workforce development system. This digital bootcamp program makes a catalog of digital skills courses available to all members of the workforce and tracks each consultant’s progress in acquiring the specific skills they need to fill their personal skills gap. As a result of this program, the firm is able to bid on more digital transformation projects of bigger scope than before.
Benefits of Digital Bootcamps in Enterprise Skilling
Here are some of the features that drive digital bootcamp benefits in skills training.
- Live virtual classrooms: Real expert instructors provide live instruction with live interaction. Benefit: high engagement with the material and a high rate of knowledge retention.
- Virtual lab platform: Learners can access the tools and testbeds they need to conduct labs and projects without having to invest-in and install specialized hardware or software. The digital bootcamp provider makes the required virtual machines and software for the learning platform, labs, and projects available via the cloud, which makes them accessible to learners virtually anywhere with an internet connection and web browser. Benefit: Learners can start working on labs and projects right away and receive fast turnaround on feedback.
- Personalized learning support: Administrators of digital bootcamps have tools that let them track each learner’s progress, and they can provide feedback and prompts to keep the learner on track toward timely and successful completion of the training. Benefit: high completion rates.
- Learning plan tools. Administrators of digital bootcamps can establish personalized learning plans for their employees and monitor each individual’s progress through the stages of the learning plan. Benefit: tailored workforce development to fill the specific skill gaps in the enterprise.
- Role-based learning paths: Digital bootcamps can support learning paths made up of related courses that provide the complementary set of skills for defined job roles. For example, Data Science and Data Analytics courses can be combined into different learning paths for the Data Scientist role, the Data Analyst role, or the Data Engineer role. Benefit: targeted training that prepares employees quickly and comprehensively to fill needed roles in the business, lowering the cost and time to fill those roles with a fully-onboarded employee.
Digital bootcamps are ideal for upskilling. For example, when a new technology like cloud computing or blockchain emerges, digital bootcamps provide a fast and effective way for your existing employees to add those skills to their repertoire.
A good digital bootcamp provider will continually refresh and expand its inventory of courses and programs to keep up with new technologies, techniques, and tools.
Digital bootcamps are also well-suited for reskilling. During times of business disruption and upheaval, some job roles become obsolete or surplus to requirements, while other new roles emerge.
Enterprises can avoid the lofty costs associated with layoffs and new hires by reskilling employees from roles that are becoming obsolete into the new roles the enterprises need to fill.
You can read our complete white paper, How L&D Professionals Are Using Digital Bootcamps To Build Teams Of Tomorrow. Visit our Corporate Training page for more information and to contact us about our corporate training solutions and these engagement models.
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