The Learning and Development Handbook
Book

The Learning and Development Handbook

A Learning Practitioner’s Toolkit

Michelle Parry-Slater
Kogan Page, 2021

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Applicable
  • Insider's Take

Recommendation

Learning’s evolution away from the in-person, classroom and formal model toward a self-directed, blended, social and digital approach is well underway, learning consultant Michelle Parry-Slater writes in this comprehensive guide to the new world of workplace learning. While classroom learning remains the best approach in some circumstances, an organization’s overarching strategy should guide its approach to L&D. The author advocates for L&D to be more consultative than prescriptive; more inclined to curate content than create it; and more comfortable with analytics, AI and measurement.

Summary

Workplace learning has changed markedly since 2000, and since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work and workers have undergone revolutionary change since the dawn of the new century, making application of 20th-century teaching to the 21st-century workplace absurd. Workers – especially since the COVID-19 pandemic – demand new approaches, technology and a shift from classroom training to a broader blend of self-directed, online and bite-sized learning that better fits today’s faster, more dynamic work environment. Sadly, few organizations have embraced this shift.

Classroom training still has its place, just far less often. With portable and powerful smartphones, laptops and tablets, employees access and engage with learning content differently today. L&D professionals should rethink learning content delivery. With or without L&D, workers no longer have to wait for a course to learn what they need, or to stay productive. L&D professionals need to discover what workers want, what they need to do their jobs well and how they learn best, depending on requirements.

L&D professionals should enlist...

About the Author

Michelle Parry-Slater runs Kairos Modern Learning in England and consults with organizations seeking modern, blended workplace learning.

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