July 17, 2007  

Sharp Ways of Sharpening Skills

By making training more effective, less time-consuming and an enriching experience for employees, eLearning can make a big difference to any organisation. SMEs need to take advantage of this system
–Niranjan Mudholkar

It’s quite habitual to talk about the many challenges faced by SMEs vis-à-vis large enterprises, particularly when it comes to money. The need is to focus on the adoption of tools that make SMEs competitive without extracting a big price. One such tool is eLearning.

Thanks to technological advancements, eLearning is today redefining the entire process of training and education. It is helping organisations to utilise information technology in enhancing employee skills and increasing their productivity. With the immense competition in the market, companies need to continuously upgrade their systems, products and obviously their employee proficiencies. eLearning is proving to be of great help in this aspect.

   But are Indian SMEs ready for elearning? "Yes, they are," says Karthik KS, Founder and CEO of 24x7 Learning, India's largest eLearning implementations company. In fact, many SMEs are adopting eLearning. It's becoming a necessity. "Today, it's only the learner organisation that survives and wins. Knowledge and talent management are crucial for any organisation to meet its business goals. And eLearning is a means for achieving talent transformation and management," Mr Karthik explains.

   Today, most organisations – irrespective of their size – have some kind of training programmes for the employees. The demand for constant upgradation necessitates this. "eLearning is an extension of the organisation's training programme," says Mr Karthik. A company like 24x7 Learning sets a framework and provides learning solutions based on the learning needs of the organisation's employees. Many organisations are now reaping the benefits of implementing eLearning. "The eLearning initiative has certainly offered a JIT platform to all our managers to learn at their own pace," says Suren Shekhawat, Chief eLearning Facilitator at Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd. Obviously, learning needs vary from organisation to organisation. These needs are interrelated with the organisation's overall work environment. "An effective learning environment works only if the culture and the nature of the organisation are assessed initially. The learning solutions are then built based on these findings. For example, in an extremely diverse organisation, training might be effective completely through eLearning; in some organisations, a blend of eLearning as well as instructor-led training might prove the most effective," explains Mr Karthik. Many organisations are now experiencing the advantages of adopting eLearning. For example, according to M Srinivas Rao, Director, Netsol, 'eLearning has advanced their reach in terms of number of people trained, dramatically.'
 
   eLearning is changing the way the world learns. "The fact that the largest universities and well-known institutions like IITs and IIMs are extensively using eLearning as a mode of learning indicates that times have changed," Mr Karthik says.

   In fact, eLearning has emerged as an excellent training option for working executives (many of these are entrepreneurs). "Today most degree and post graduation courses especially for executives who are employed, and in the case of distance education, completion courses and assessment happen through eLearning," adds Mr Karthik. With many organisations, the purely traditional learning methods have now started giving way to eLearning and blended learning methods.

   The mention of educational institutes and universities evoke the memories of campuses. Interestingly, 24x7 Learning manages 21 virtual corporate universities where they have developed virtual campuses for their customers. “This begins with understanding the organisation and its learning culture, evaluating the existing learning processes if any and then recommending the best learning practices for the organisation," explains Mr Karthik. Next comes installation of a learning management system (LMS) and integrating content into this LMS.

   An organisation's learning system can be effective only if it spreads over to the other areas of its operations. This happens in the second stage when the application of the virtual campus is expanded. Finally, the eLearning initiative is integrated with the organisation's overall processes.

   The aim of implementing any learning system is basically to further the growth of the organisation. Meeting business objectives is an imperative. "We understand the clients’ learning culture and propose a sustained learning environment that will help them meet their business objectives. We use our technology, processes, consulting and content to establish this learning environment," says Mr Karthik.

   Whether an SME or not, business organisations always want to grow. A good eLearning system must take into account this factor. "That's right. But our role does not stop at just creating the learning environment. Particularly for the SMEs, we recommend the way forward in terms of the learning environment and how they must ensure that the learning systems grow as the organisation grows. We align their learning systems with their business objectives," states Mr Karthik. And organisations are reaping the benefits.

   Thus, eLearning is indeed the way forward for SMEs. It is truly a sharp way of sharpening employee skills for achieving business objectives. Mr Karthik puts it lucidly. He says, "eLearning applies technology, processes and services to establish an ecosystem for measurable and manageable competency enhancement, knowledge retention and productivity increase." That – undoubtedly – is the goal of most organisations, whether the y are an SME or not.

Benefits of eLearning



• More effective than traditional methods

• Can be blended with traditional methods

• Very cost effective

• Facilitates training, any time and anywhere

• Gives scope for self-directed, self-paced training on the relevant subject

• Provides tools for evaluation

• Enhances the learning experience

• Ultimately increases productivity