Intended to help employees gain skills, vocational training does not always meet this expectation. After a first change made in 2015 thanks to the CPF, which now offers an employee the possibility of training without asking for the approval of his company, it has just made a second urgently. The implementation of confinement and especially partial unemployment has made it possible to break down some barriers, further opening the way to distance training and the acquisition of new skills. Three companies, OpenClassrooms, Kokoroe and 360Learning provide Maddyness with details of their results for this unique period and look to 2021.
A good year for training
To cope with the changes taking place in our societies and the ever faster arrival of new technologies and new uses, vocational training has become more essential than ever. But due to lack of time and because of a long-term vision of the subject – companies often provide training plans over 18 months – vocational training sometimes struggles to take its full place in the company. According to a Lingueo-Unow study published in early December, only 24% of French workers have completed or started training since January 1, 2019.
The introduction of partial unemployment and remote work has profoundly shaken the sector, highlighting “ the obsolescence of traditional training ” , underlines Liam Boogar-Azoulay, director of brand marketing at 360Learning. Those involved in training who already offered distance modules have clearly benefited from this.
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« In five months, we achieved our turnover for 2019 and in 2020 we see growth of 100% ” , enthuses Élise Covilette, co-founder of Kokoroe, without giving any figures. The situation would also be excellent on the side of OpenClassrooms which exceeded its initial objectives, attesting to a 150% increase in requests against 100% initially expected. To cope with this unexpected increase, the company had to recruit 150 people in one year compared to 70 at 360Learning.
After the emergency, awareness
At Kokoroe, the founders observed two phases. ” During the first confinement, we faced an immediate, precise and targeted need from companies who wanted to train their employees on topics related to remote work, observes Élise Covilette. Secondly, they wanted to distance themselves from entire sections of their offer ”. The CAC40 companies are not the only ones to have made this awareness: “ mid-sized companies are looking to improve their digital marketing and social networks. “
Within OpenClassrooms, all sectors, B2B as B2C, have been positively affected. ” Lhalted companies took the opportunity to find employment for their employees by training them ” , explains Pierre Dubuc, co-founder of the company. Often relegated to later for lack of time, the leaders took advantage of this impromptu break to compensate for skills gaps or to strengthen them in order to bounce back faster after deconfinement. The courses sought mainly revolved around ” digital transformation with hardware and software but also programs related to improving the employability of employees with soft skills. “
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Liam Boogar-Azoulay notes, for his part, ” a huge acceleration in the adoption of collaborative learning ” which consists of training between peers by sharing skills. This year also highlighted the points of tension of the leaders on the training and allowed to ” put back counters to zero in this sector ”.
Trends for 2021
Even today, many companies prepare static training plans for 18 to 36 months. ” This phenomenon causes a lot of frustration among training teams who are forced to follow a plan created years ago and which, according to employees, does not represent their current problems ” , Liam Boogar-Azoulay analysis. This is the reason why he believes in ” collaborative learning which makes it possible to continuously identify employee training needs and respond to them quickly ” by referring to an expert colleague. If the practice is more developed in the United States, it is still far from being adopted in France.
OpenClassrooms and Kokoroe are less innovative in their prediction. For Pierre Dubuc, the change will come from conversions resulting from the economic crisis. Rather than proposing a job protection plan (PSE), “ companies will opt for internal mobility with a reconversion to a growing pole ” . Retraining could also affect people who have lost their jobs, as evidenced by the Lingueo and Unow survey, which reveals that 33% of respondents are thinking of retraining and 9% of setting up their business.
For Élise Covilette, it is the ” personal development and the well-being of employees who will be honor next year ”. Estimates supported by the study according to which 45% of respondents consider the soft skills essential for them today.
On the other hand, the integration of artificial intelligence or virtual reality in training processes is absolutely not mentioned by specialists. ” 95% of companies that talk about artificial intelligence actually offer a single algorithm ”, Judge Pierre Dubuc. While it recognizes the benefits it could bring, the market is still lagging behind on this subject. Ditto for virtual reality whose democratization is far from being achieved.
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December 14, 2020 / 9:00 a.m.
updated on December 14, 2020
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