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    Posted on
    May 19, 2016 Method 

    What is "Blended Training" exactly?

        

    Companies choose training to reach their goals in terms of team effectiveness and to closely handle the issues they face in the field. Blended training enables the comprehensive assimilation of professional skills. 

    Blended training vs Traditional training


     

    1. The traditional training scheme has had its time

    We operate in a fast-changing market, requiring companies to rapidly adapt their teams. Hence, not only has the market evolved, but so have companies.

    Proposed training should follow the same trend: the omnipresence of IT in companies should ensure more adapted and more effective training solutions solutions for employees. Today, traditional training is facing obstacles:

    • Traditional training is perceived as having less impact due to its lack of dynamism. Such training lacks interactivity, and is experienced as a constraint by participants who, in most cases, do not find it to be of any genuine added-value.
    • Traditional training does not offer practical application to follow initial training. Therefore, participants are not able to retain long-term knowledge and apply it to their daily activities.

      

    2. What is innovative about blended learning?

    Blended learning is a mix between e-learning and practical application using a smart simulator. This training path, along with the intellectual assimilation it implies, is made possible thanks to a specific training and learning process.

    Where does it come from? What skills does it imply?

    Blended learning takes the participant’s initial profile as its basis to offer customised and targeted training.

    1. A pre-diagnosis is performed to assess the candidate’s proficiency in each domain, in order to better focus the training on improvement potentials without wasting time on subjects that the participant already masters. Once this profile is determined, training can begin by following a flexible methodology that is adapted to all.
    1. Participants are given up to three weeks to retain the required knowledge by following optional e-learning modules. This distance-based learning phase can take place at any moment and by any means (PC, iPad, phone), hence freeing itself from the time and mobility constraints of traditional training.

    2. Upon completion of the learning phase, simulation is performed through Serious Games. These are smart simulators that create a virtual working environment for participants, allowing them to apply their acquired knowledge and assess how they can actually affect future decision-making in the field. This is an in-person situational exercise that lets participants discuss the relevance of such or such decision that was taken.
    1. Post-assessment makes it possible to measure participant progress and evaluate the impact of learning on candidate decision-making in given situations.

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    3. Serious games to master skills

    You are a 108 times more likely to progress using a serious game.
    Ewing Marion, Kauffman Foundation

    A serious game, or applied game, is a recreational and educational, real-life simulation tool. Participants are immersed in a seamless working environment, with the possibility to test the extent to which decision-making can affect company figures. This is performed in a virtual environment, free of any pressure linked to real-life risks.

    This new professional skill simulator serves as practical experience for participants. It allows them to more calmly put the theoretical skills they have gained into practice within their respective companies.

    On average, a serious game is run 3 to 4 times a year by a participant to improve his or her results and understand potential mistakes. In some cases, simulators are known to have even been run 42 times by participants who wished to increase their results.
    (internal source from Actando)

     

    4. How to implement a blended training path

    Field sales representatives (SFEs, marketing managers, and so on) are in a position to assess blended training needs within their own companies. Nonetheless, all employees are aware of the reality of business. It is therefore necessary to involve all the different statuses in the blended project’s preparation phase.

    The delay for implementing a blended training path partly depends on the type of programme needed by the company. It is possible to implement a blended training path in less than a week if there is already existing content and if no specific adaptation is required.

    Depending on the company’s specific needs, a customised training path can also be performed with an upstream development phase consisting of e-learning modules, tests and specific serious games spread over several months.

     

    5. Actando’s specific approach

    Actando is committed to ensuring follow-up until 80% of participants have been qualified.
    (Ksenia Yancheva – Director of International Actando Operations)

    All training tools are available online, allowing Actando to identify the needs of everyone and adapt each phase of the learning process.

    Actando’s blended approach is recognized for:

    • its flexibility - Actando adapts the programmes to specific customer needs and configures them with the market’s latest simulators. Actando also supplies its customers with decision-making tools specifically tailored to their needs, allowing concrete implementation throughout their daily activities.

    • its mobility – Actando’s tools and programmes are all tablet computer and PC-compliant. Participants can undertake their training online or offline. Automatic synchronisation is performed when the supporting device is connected to the internet.

    • its cuts on training costs – since programmes are available online, it is no longer necessary to gather teams for days-long training. All participants monitor their learning schedules according to their own professional duties. Expected travel costs are therefore reduced, and team productivity is not altered.

    • its customised care – all clients are unique in the eyes of Actando. They are personally followed by a dedicated expert. We build genuinely trustworthy relationships with all customers who entrust their specific needs to our care.

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    • The Actando Consulting Team

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