2020! We didn’t see that coming, did we?
This really was the year that everything changed. From bright prospects in January with our clients, to the sudden crash of lockdown and then to a new business – online, bite-sized training, international.
We are now delivering management and communications training from Latin America, Europe, across Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific and to some very early mornings (for us) with clients Australia and New Zealand.
We had already been developing on our offer of blended learning – mixing in-class training with access to online materials. But now our learners are more willing to accept bite sized workshops combined with online materials that they can study in their own time. It’s up to them.
And it’s up to us to continue coming up with new formulas for group webinars, follow up coaching and digital resources. Expect big things from us in 2021.
We offer clients from corporate and public sectors the following:
- Virtual classrooms – interactive webinars (2-hours)
- Individual coaching
- Online study materials
- In-class training (where social distancing allows)
Bite sized webinars for small groups, follow-up online coaching for individuals and online resources on our learning management platform so that our learners can study at their own pace.
Life is not going back to the old normal. And do you know what? For communications and management training, I am not sure I want it to. Our new offer (webinars, coaching, classrooms) is more focused on what our learners need and how they want to access training.
It’s not about the technology – it’s about what learners want. And how we can provide it for them. The technology works and we are all pretty good with Zoom, Webex or Google Meet. The social interactions can be awkward – but we get on with it.
We can include staff from multiple locations, attendance is high, sessions are bite sized so easy to commit to and learners can get individual follow up coaching. We are currently training 80 people from one company across multiple countries and five different time zones. They get pre-course tasks and videos, study materials and our trainers on Zoom or Webex.
It’s all about the value of training and communications. We have had to innovate very quickly – but I am truly excited about providing communications training for the future. We will always enjoy being together with people in the same room, when we can do this safely. But a mix of in-person and digital is here to stay.
Now, let’s hope that we can get out of this mess with a vaccine and other interventions. And let’s hope that we will all be able to see other again in-person soon in 2021.
If you want to know more about how we have adapted our training courses online please contact me at andrew.manasseh@communicatingeu.com