How Education Can Advance and Innovate Your Business

By: Ryan Ayers

Education is a powerful vehicle for professional growth. It’s now more affordable, and recent technological innovations have made it easier for employees to acquire and advance their skillsets.

Employers who invest in employee education enjoy increased access to skills among the internal talent pool, broaden the cumulative knowledge of their workers and promote impactful innovation. Continuing education, for instance, is an excellent way to build employee skills, enhance morale and attract new talent. Furthermore, it’s a great way to provide additional employee benefits and make job offerings more attractive to potential job candidates.

Career development is a win-win proposition for employees and employers. Business leaders can implement career development initiatives by providing access to online learning resources, paying for industry related workshops or sponsoring in-house training.

There’s a training program for nearly every skill and role that an employer might need to fulfill. These opportunities help employers to enhance their workforce and provide professionals with the skills that they need to advance their career objectives. Most importantly, enterprise leaders will benefit from workers’ newly-gained skills through their heightened ability to perform tasks related to daily operations.

Technology Enhances the Ability to Learn and get Educated

Citizens of the Information Age have witnessed the proliferation of new technologies in the learning environment. More than 80-percent of educators believe that technology enhances learning experiences and outcomes. Innovative technological resources help learners to develop skills, strengthen their critical thinking abilities and better prepare for their professional roles.

With a wealth of digital technology choices, today’s educators must place considerable thought into implementing classroom technologies that will provide the most beneficial outcomes for learners. In part, this involves leveraging the most innovative and functional resources available to help learners enhance their opportunities.

Trends Improving Education

Nearly every industry and field has been affected by the relatively recent technological revolution—including academia. Smartphones, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are making their way into classrooms and stimulating and inspiring today’s crop of learners and educators.

Technologically-advanced training is a powerful vehicle for growth. The proliferation of innovation in the classroom is becoming more notable and cost-effective, and is helping people to advance their skills.

Professional Development and Education are Beneficial for Employees

Professionals want to learn new skills. Employers who invest in career development encourage workers to gain new professional capabilities, broaden their knowledge and—ultimately—positively impact enterprise operations.

Today’s learning tools allow employers to cherry-pick resources for training employees about specific skills needed to fulfill enterprise roles. Employers can increase worker satisfaction and enhance workers’ ability to fulfill their professional duties by implementing a career development program. This level of customization is also available to managers of different departments within an organization. Furthermore, reward-based and gamification learning opportunities further incentivize workers to pursue advanced training.

Communication Skills are Always Improved with Education

Amidst the technological revolution, the status of the lowly telephone is receiving renewed consideration. Counterintuitive to the technology trend, the relatively archaic telephone is undergoing a professional Renaissance as a tool that’s great for standing out in a world full of rapid-fire digital communications and an impersonal business environment.

Despite this singular aberration, from outbound marketing to sales processes to internal and external communications, technology has changed everything about business, and today’s professionals are barraged with a seemingly never-ending daily deluge of beeps and notifications from electronic devices. Still, these innovations better equip workers to promote their personal brand.

No matter what the form, education inspires people. Employers who make it easy for workers to acquire new skills develop not only workers, but the effectiveness of the enterprise.

Learning resources are available on many platforms and in many shapes and forms. The resources allow professionals to learn any topic of interest and develop their business skillset.

The nation’s employers expend a considerable amount of money and staff member resources to find and recruit skilled talent. Yet, studies show that workers with access to career development opportunities are 15-percent more engaged in their job and 34-percent more likely to remain with the providing employer, reducing employee turnover. This can save employers 6 to 9 months of the cost of a skilled employee’s salary.

It’s easier and more cost-effective to retain talent and hire from within an organization. Career development increases daily productivity. Furthermore, upskilling employees is a great way to fill critical enterprise roles without the need to conduct a time-intensive and costly job candidate search.

Career development programs are undeniably beneficial. They help employees enhance their value and work toward professional goals. Through career development, employers can easily reap the benefits of a highly skilled and trained workforce.

By Ryan Ayers