Looking Ahead

The tech industry will lead in onboarding and professional training in 2020, according to executives from BenchPrep, a cloud-based learning platform for nonprofits, corporations, and training companies.

As we ring in the new year, executives from BenchPrep, a cloud-based learning platform for nonprofits, corporations, and training companies, offer their predictions on trends in the professional learning and training space for 2020:

  • Personalized learning will boom. “Through artificial intelligence (AI) and microlearning, a system can assess learners’ needs and serve up content tailored to them,” says Celeste Martinelli, vice president, Customer Success, BenchPrep. “2020 also will bring more user experience (UX) applied approaches.”
  • The tech industry will lead in onboarding and professional training. “A number of tech companies are employing recent graduates, paying them salaries, and providing benefits to train them in the latest technologies, development, or data science skill sets, and then staffing them at their client sites with ongoing coaching,” Martinelli notes. “So their clients are confident they are receiving high-quality employees, albeit contract employees. This innovative model removes much of the friction in the education and training space.”
  • Continuous professional learning will take precedence over one-off training. “Organizations will implement learning elements into a more continuous curriculum to offset or mitigate the forgetting cycle,” says Joe Miller, vice president, Learning Design & Strategy, BenchPrep. “One-off training programs (i.e., a oneday workshop) lose their effectiveness if that content is not reinforced and constant in nature.”
Lorri Freifeld
Lorri Freifeld is the editor/publisher of Training magazine. She writes on a number of topics, including talent management, training technology, and leadership development. She spearheads two awards programs: the Training APEX Awards and Emerging Training Leaders. A writer/editor for the last 30 years, she has held editing positions at a variety of publications and holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University.