September is an exciting time: The new training year begins! This demands a lot from both those responsible in companies and the trainees: Other tasks are left undone, and important basic knowledge can be quickly lost. Digital support can ease the burden for you and the trainees in the first weeks. How this can be achieved through "Blended Onboarding" will be explained in this article through an example.
Integrating new colleagues is always a challenge: Integration means, after all, that the focus shifts away from daily business to knowledge transfer and support. For trainees coming into companies now in September, the process is often even more intense. Here, supervisors, team leaders, and HR responsible need to start even earlier in the learning process than with experienced professionals.
The challenge: Conveying a lot of knowledge in a short time
The goals for the first weeks with the new trainees are clear:
Clearly communicate the process for the next 2 to 3 years
Convey necessary basic knowledge about the company and important processes
Ensure a getting-to-know so that trainees can be quickly integrated
… while still maintaining a productive work environment.
All of this combined is a significant time burden for those responsible – and a cognitive challenge for the trainees, who have to acquire a lot of knowledge in a little time: from workplace safety to using new tools and learning the names of many new people, all the way to the particularly important operation of the coffee machine! 😀
All this knowledge must not only be conveyed by those responsible and supervisors: The trainees must also understand, process, and have it readily available at all times. Only then will a smooth work routine be possible quickly.
Especially in the first weeks, it is determined how quickly trainees feel secure and can contribute productively. A structured induction reduces overwhelm, boosts motivation, and prevents important basic knowledge from being lost or needing to be explained multiple times.
Solution approach: Digitally supported onboarding for trainees
To ensure that the induction is quick and sustainable, it is important that the learning process fits the target group. Therefore, you need to know your target group well: The biggest difference between experienced new employees and trainees is often the age: The average age of trainees is around 20 years. This means that trainees mostly belong to "Generation Z".
What characterizes trainees of Generation Z?
Digital Natives: Raised with digital technologies.
Self-evident use of smartphones and tablets.
Practiced in dealing with digitally/online available knowledge.
Tends to reject print media such as books and magazines.
Communication via smartphones, clouds, apps, and social networks.
Utilize these characteristics and habits to your advantage! From this, you can directly derive how the onboarding for young trainees should look in order to be effective and motivating:
How you should design the onboarding for trainees
Focus on digital media, little print media like classic manuals.
Knowledge available at any time (learning on demand).
Knowledge is flexibly available on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.
Suitable devices in the workplace are readily available.
Flexible scheduling for learning directly at the workplace, alternatively set learning times.
Offer direct exchange with fellow trainees and contact with the trainers (Interesting about this: Study by AUBI-Plus on the wishes of trainees regarding E-Learning).
All these points are met by an innovative learning concept called "Blended Onboarding".
Onboard trainees supported digitally with "Blended Onboarding"
You are likely familiar with the term "Blended Learning" from the field of further education: The combination of online and presence learning. "Blended Onboarding" is directly modeled on this: The combination of learning content in an online course with personal live sessions.
Live sessions + Online course = Blended Onboarding
An onboarding process based on the "Blended Onboarding" concept supports all goals for the first weeks and aligns with the habits and expectations of young trainees.
Practice: Example online course for trainee onboarding
Below you see an online course on the blink.it learning platform, with which the concept of "Blended Onboarding" was developed. The course will certainly not fit all professions but gives you an initial idea for practical implementation:
Example of a supporting online course for trainees in the first days/weeks.
Clear structures in the onboarding course
The course is set up so that the contents are automatically released one after the other. This makes the online course clearer for you and the trainees and brings more structure to it. Recommendation: Plan the content by weeks if you have more than just a few basic contents (Week 1: All content on Topic 1 – Week 2: All content on Topic 2, etc.) and create an onboarding plan using the guideline "Blended Onboarding in Companies".
Quick integration through Q&A sessions
To turn the online course into blended onboarding, you also plan Q&A sessions on topics where questions are foreseeable or where additional personal support makes sense. In these cases, the online content serves as preparation, so that the Q&A sessions run productively. Recommendation: Schedule at least 15 minutes daily for Q&A sessions. Plan Q&A sessions with different contacts and colleagues to strengthen the integration of the trainees.
"Recycling" in the online course saves time!
Moreover, on the blink.it learning platform, you can "recycle" the contents: Some information is certainly important not only for trainees but also for other new employees, interns, working students, and others. For example, safety topics or site maps. Recommendation: Create a basic course as a template that contains all the contents that are important for all newcomers. Copy this basic course and supplement it with specific contents. This way, you save additional time and can be sure that all individuals in the company receive the same information. Only the welcome video should be created individually for each newcomer by you or the supervising person – this increases the bonding from the very beginning. The easiest way is to create videos with a smartphone.
Conclusion: Save time and nerves when onboarding trainees
Successful onboarding of trainees combines digital structure with personal support and thus creates a secure entry into professional life.
Blended Onboarding makes it possible to provide basic knowledge flexibly and reusable, while live sessions create space for questions, exchange, and integration. This leads to a clearly structured learning process that alleviates the burden on those responsible and gives trainees orientation.
Those who use digital learning formats purposefully create transparency, commitment, and motivation from the start, thus laying the foundation for successful training.
Last updated on 26.02.2026
