SOLVING A CUSTOM NEED

February 3, 2014

Let’s face it. Sometimes you are unable to find a generic product that fits your needs — even after examining many vendor catalogs of courseware titles. And, occasionally you might even have need for a technology-based course that addresses a particular process or procedure that is specific to your plant.

What should you look for?

Well, unless the workers-to-be-trained are highly educated, you’re going to want to find a solution that is media-based in order to assure yourself the best outcomes.

Where should you turn?

To begin, you should select an organization that has a long track record of producing similar media-based training programs for their customers. That organization should also be willing to demonstrate for you similar custom programs that they’ve produced.

Secondly, you are looking for a custom vendor that specializes in adult education – an organization that understands what it takes to motivate and train adults in their own simulated environment. And, above all, a vendor that realizes that media-based learning is ultra important to almost 40% of the American workforce that do not readily assimilate anything written above a 4th grade reading level. If that vendor does not specialize in full motion video-based courseware, accompanied by optional word-for-word audio, disqualify them as a potential candidate.

You’re also looking for a vendor that is fully capable of determining what training needs exist — through both skills and tasks analyses — and how best to meet those learning goals. In short, a producer that knows when to call in subject matter experts for specific expertise in a particular area, and how to gather the necessary information — presenting it clearly and logically to the learners.

Your vendor-of-choice should demonstrate that they understand the importance of remediation, so that the learning can be completed successfully. That vendor should also understand training as a just-in-time resource that can be used efficiently whenever and wherever — after the initial instruction has taken place.

If you pick the right custom courseware producer you should, then, be able to cut your workers time-in-classroom by 50-70% which, of course, gives you a relatively quick ROI on your custom media-based investment.