Hannah Ross
Protecting your competitive advantage
The commitment to continuous skills improvement – as an integral part of a company’s culture – is a requirement of a technology-driven organisation, in an increasingly technologically-defined construction sector.
To make this commitment come alive, Blended Learning addresses continuous skills improvement with the appropriate resources, when they’re needed; investing the business with the practices that support knowledge, skills, and up-to-date familiarity with software, and the rapidly evolving digital framework of the construction sector.
Blended Learning drives consistency, motivation, efficiency and productivity. It provides protection for the competitive advantage of the business.
It’s not what you know that counts, it’s knowing where the gaps are
The practices of ‘digital construction’ are gaining widespread adoption. Of the many influences and tools for this, plus the drivers of change, is Building Information Modelling (BIM). An enormous selection of technologies is involved in BIM, focussed on efficient and consistent sharing of data, including; technologies to support paperless construction, document management, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Laser technologies, aids for design and architecture, collaboration and working with data, sharing and working on files between offices, project management and more.
In all this easier access to fresh capabilities, longer-standing, or infrequently used skills often get forgotten. Those whose roles are progressively technology-dependant, particularly architects and designers – with software as their principal professional tool – can become a little rusty with some of the functionalities, and even miss out on specific uses of the software (thereby missing out on faster productivity and even deeper creativity); just by not knowing that they exist.
Continuous skills improvement: The practical value of Blended Learning
A Blended Learning approach takes care of these interruptions to progress. It also offers an opportunity for skilled professionals to keep pace with new features of existing software products as they become available.
By combining two core pillars of effective training – classroom learning and e-learning – Blended Learning brings continuous skills development into the company culture, addressing the view of Continuing Personal Development (CPD) and supporting company-wide, as well as individual-based, improvement.
Personal e-learning complements the skills acquired in a classroom setting. Skills have to be kept current on an ongoing basis. An e-learning tool we support at Symetri is Pinnacle Series, which has been specifically designed for the construction sector. Pinnacle Series offers significant practical value through the insights people need exactly when they need them; ‘Just-in-Time’ training personalised to the individual. It’s like having a personal tutor and mentor at your disposal whenever you need to know how to use software in a certain way, or to ‘brush up’ on skills you may not have needed to use for a long time.
As the poet Alexander Pope said: “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” A Blended Learning approach ensures that your team know what they need to know, when they need to know it.
Find out more about Pinnacle Series, click here.
