With the increasing digitization of work, the demands on trainers and coaches are changing. My assumption: this trend will continue over the next 5-10 years. The world of work 4.0 will be characterized by rapid innovation cycles, flexible working conditions, and ongoing education for employees. With this change, trainers, coaches, and other HR professionals are also facing new challenges. The Düsseldorf consulting firm metaBeratung surveyed 100 executives in their survey "Human Resources in Digital Transformation" to find out which qualities will be important for tomorrow's employees.

Source: https://www.metaberatung.de/fileadmin/metaberatung-content/news/metaBeratung-Infografik-PM-Angst.pdf

A quick glance at the graphic shows that trainers and coaches will also have a lot to do in the future. What’s at the top of the list? The “classic” training topics: willingness to change, flexibility, creativity, and communication. What do these training occasions have in common? These topics cannot be changed overnight. (Note: If you know how to do this, I would be very curious ;) )

These topics relate to changes in behavior, habits, and to some extent, personality. Such changes require long-term support. In a one-day workshop or a weekend seminar, something can certainly be conveyed at the “knowledge level.” However, sustainable changes only occur when what has been learned is also practiced 12 weeks later and transitions into new habits. Increasingly, clients want to know how trainers and coaches handle this transfer gap. A good answer can be an online support for sustainable change. You don’t need to change much about your existing training offerings for this. With the learning format of blended learning, you expand your in-person events with the appropriate online content. This online content you offer as online support for your course.

What must a trainer be able to do in the digitized world of work?

The answer: inform, support, and accompany. I want to share my vision with you: Learning content is easily accessible and adapted to the prior knowledge and needs of the learners. Learners learn autonomously and support each other with the help of study groups and experience exchange. As a trainer, you provide participants with a selection of online content, and the learners decide for themselves which content they want to deepen. During the in-person meetings, you focus on the obstacles that hinder practical transfer. Video content plays a special role for you in the support process. You have built a relationship with the participants during the in-person phase. With video messages from you, you personally address your participants and inform them about exercises and tasks. Your participants also record their knowledge, insights, and training experiences via video.

That’s why, as a trainer 4.0, you will produce your own courses and videos in the future

Whether as a freelance trainer or as an in-house trainer in a company, in the future you will produce training content yourself. What may sound like a lot of work at first is - with the right know-how and software support - much easier than it seems. You bring the subject matter expertise to your topic. After all, you are already conveying your subjects in the in-person events. Only the online content is missing. If you produce it yourself, you only need to pay attention to a few didactic and media technology aspects to achieve good results. If you are equipped with a program like PowerPoint, you can get started right away and create the online content for your online support. With the program, you can also design graphics that you incorporate into your video recordings. You make these recordings with your smartphone and an external microphone. What used to be time-consuming and costly to produce is now managed by programs on your laptop or tablet.

What changes are you experiencing? Do you perhaps have a different perspective on this topic? What are you already producing yourself? Share your insights with us.

PS: The German Continuing Education Day (September 2016) is dedicated to the topic "Continuing Education 4.0". Perhaps there is an interesting event near you.