NEVER STOP LEARNING – WHY ENERGY SECTOR TRAINING IS EASIER WITH DIGITAL

Despite its commitment to continuous training, the energy industry has often struggled to offer its teams longer-term skills development opportunities.  

With the need for operational and regulatory requirements to take priority, companies have tended to focus their attention on closing immediate capability gaps - usually with short term training that can add up to little more than a tick-box exercise.

Now, e-learning is providing a more effective and sustainable solution, delivering a full suite of upstream training courses spanning the entire project lifecycle. Users learn faster and remember more, while managers gain granular insights enabling them to create highly tailored programmes to optimise performance and support their teams.    

Better for learners

A career in the energy sector has always involved an element of uncertainty. Oil prices and activity levels fluctuate, businesses are forced to adapt and today we can see a global energy transition rapidly changing the expectations and skillsets of the workforce.

Offering learners a platform to take control of their own learning has huge benefits for both the individual and the employer.

Accessible 24 hours a day from any device, learners can manage their training around operational imperatives, while the latest digital training techniques provide bite-sized, blended learning meaning a shorter, more frequent study period – allowing greater flexibility.

Some specialist e-learning companies like Norwell EDGE have developed technology that enables the learner rather than the employer to own their training portfolio. This ensures that an auditable record, certified learning and access to a wealth of reference materials stays with them as they move throughout their career – even when they move to a new employer.

By developing transferable knowledge and skills that may be applied to future renewables, carbon capture or decommissioning projects, and deepening understanding with more complex courses, learners can advance their learning in a manner that is mutually beneficial with their employer.

When it comes to the where and when of learning, individual learning preferences will always vary – that’s why a flexible model is needed to provide the maximum growth opportunity for every learner. Retention rates of classroom-based training are as low as 8-10%, while digital training methods increase retention by up to 60% (1).

As well as providing training that allows learning at the optimal time and place, it is also important that training reflects how learners want to learn. Watching online videos is now the preferred method of learning among those aged 16-54 in the UK (2) – and effective digital training platforms will feature a range of media including video to reinforce learning and engage users.

Better for employers

The granular insights into individual development that digital training platforms provide has created a new level of planning capability for training.

Combining these capabilities with easy-to-use interfaces, employers can now build fully customised courses built around team-wide and individual competency gaps while having constant access to training progress and assessment performance data.

These capabilities allow for a smart approach to both the planning and measurement of effective training programmes – not least by vastly improving efficiency.

Learners perform best when courses are made up of smaller, bite-sized pieces of content – in contrast, operational pressures mean that classroom-based training usually requires as much material as possible to be squeezed into sessions. Because digital training gives learners the flexibility to squeeze in smaller chunks while also naturally reinforcing information through feedback, the time to absorb information is significantly less than traditional courses. In fact, real hands-on training time is 30-50% less which makes for a huge financial and time saving for operators (3).

Want to learn more?

Norwell EDGE is the digital training platform for the oil and gas industry. For a simple and flexible implementation, our modules can even be integrated with operators’ own internal training systems. Request a demo today – or why not get in touch to request a free trial for your teams?
For more information visit www.norwelledge.com

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