“The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind”. – Steve Jobs
Corporate learning and development in India is poised to undergo a big transformation. Let me support this statement with some statistics. India has a population of more than 1.3 billion out of which 65% are below the age of 35. It is expected that, by 2020, average age of Indians will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan.
This evidently concludes that India is a country of young nationals, now let’s look at the current scenario where businesses are becoming more and more competitive, automation is taking away jobs; therefore, continuous upskilling is becoming the need of the hour and essential to sustain.
To meet the continuous upskilling requirement, the Learning and Development (L&D) function has to be cutting-edge and equipped with the latest technologies. However, the L&D function at the vast majority of corporates in India is still at the initial stage of learning evolution.
Let’s look at the picture below on the evolution of corporate learning:
In India, majority of the corporates are still relying on Instructor-led training and trying to get materials online. Having said that transformations are now taking place in the L&D functions.
The way India leapfrogged from no phone connections to mobiles phones with 4G connectivity. Similar is the case for corporate L&D.
Corporates are now asking for game-based, mobile responsive learning. The Learning Management Systems (LMS) are cloud-based and support social and game based learning. The LMSs are also integrated with HR and Business applications.
I look forward to knowing your thoughts/comments on the future of corporate L&D in India.
