Technical professions need a growth mindset where learning new skills is part of the job. Many employees and employers are so busy with day-to-day work duties that they forget about it. This leads to a situation when employee skills are outdated and need to be improved as a matter of urgency.

Expanding skills of your workers through technical training should be a part of your company’s policy. In this post we’ll discuss the importance of development in the workplace as well as methods of including training in the corporate strategy.

Employee Skills Development: Benefits

There are many benefits of introducing mechanisms allowing employees to improve technical skills:

• Staff training increases employee engagement. Employees, who feel like they’re growing in a company are more satisfied with their jobs.  
  
• Having the right skills improves performance. Employees with outdated skills not only feel inadequate but also can pose a threat to the company’s reputation.
  
• Employees who feel their skills are becoming insufficient may seek their own training. That upsets the work-life balance. It also separates workers from the company and company spirit.
  
• Workers who feel they’re learning something new may notice renewed enthusiasm for their jobs.
  
• Investing in technical training of employees improves the company’s image as a place where people can learn and grow.
  
• An education and training scheme for employees is an attractive benefit when trying to entice new, highly qualified hires to join the company. 

As you can see the benefits of providing education and training to employees outweigh the drawbacks and costs.

How to Improve Technical Skills of Employees

There are numerous ways in which skills of employees can be improved. Your business can decide to invest in upskilling certain employees or training for the company as a whole. 

Another important factor are the operational needs of the company. Training junior workers is something that likely won’t cause major interruptions. On the other hand, senior employees are often overwhelmed with their usual duties. This makes it more challenging for them to find the  time for training.

Before your business commits to a training scheme, consider the budget and time limitations. There are many advanced training solutions a company may consider. In terms of time management the two main solutions are: 

• Full-time – for short courses and workshops giving the employees the opportunity to fully focus on the content could be the best solution. It creates a workflow disruption but if planned in advance this problem may be minimised.
  
• Part-time – longer educational commitments may be impossible to complete by sacrificing work time full-time. This is when allowing employees to spend an allocated amount of time on training weekly or monthly is the best solution.

The way in which training is conducted should also be considered. Depending on the nature of technical skills that you would like your employees to improve, you should choose between: 

• On-site or in-person training – is one of the most traditional methods of learning. The service provider can come to you or you and your team can go to them. For some skills it’s the only training option. 
  
• Online learning – many technical skills can be learnt online. There are some obvious benefits of this method. It is very efficient and apart from webinars can be done when an employee has the time to complete a given module.
  
• Blended learning – is a great solution as it’s a combination of on-site/in-person training and online learning. It works great for skills where some parts of the training need to be done in person, but it’s not true for all of them. 

There are also various types of learning a company may decide to sponsor for its employees. They include: 

• Degrees and diplomas – these most expensive and most time-consuming solutions are usually reserved for more senior employees
  
• Short-term courses – perfect for limited skills that don’t require a lot of time to learn, they often end with a certificate of achievement
  
• Long-term courses – are a great solution for skills that can’t be learnt overnight. Just like short-term courses, employees often get a certificate upon completion.
  
• Workshops – an effective idea when groups of people need to be trained

Finding Technical Training in Australia

Finding the right service provider for your company’s educational needs is an important element of planning your employee skills development. After all, you want the money you put into upskilling to be spent on quality services.

Are you looking for first class instruction? Try scientific & technical training with CS Executive Group employee skills assessment and let us tailor the experience to your organisation’s needs. Don’t hesitate! We’ve been providing bespoke specialist training for staff in the scientific industry since 1988.