With reskilling and adopting new skill sets becoming critical in today's IT environment, a study by Pluralsight, a technology learning platform, has revealed that majority of IT professionals would like to indulge in self learning and do not want to indulge in classroom training. Majority of them also prefer to learn on the go through their mobiles or handheld devices. The study found that more than 90 per cent of IT organisations are gamifying learning, as it increases learner's engagement and makes learning a fun experience overall.
A.N. Rao, SVP and Head, Cognizant Academy, observed that in today's environment with high bench utilisation and project work, especially at customer's location, it is virtually not possible to engage employees in classroom kind of training where they take a few days off to wholly dedicate themselves for a training programme. “Employees can learn while on the job through videos or they can learn while on the go on their mobiles and handhelds as many of them have to commute long distances from their workplaces to their homes. They can utilise that time to indulge in some learning activity,” said Rao.
Experts such as Arun Rajamani, Country GM, Pluralsight India observed that each and every IT employee is reskillable and learning styles have changed over time and are becoming online, personalised and byte-sized. "94 per cent of IT professionals feel personalisation of learning experience will impact learning in next two years, while 93 per cent feel byte-sized learning and 92 per cent feel adaptive online assessments are key developments to impact learning," remarked Rajamani.
The report also clearly observed that gamified learning helps foster a more socially inclusive culture at the workplace and helps learners share their experiences with each other and caters to better workplace collaboration. It also enables learners to take responsibility for their personal training, inculcates a spirit of healthy competition and also supports continuous learning. "If implemented in right manner, gamified learning will enhance the overall learning experience for all experience brackets," said Indranil Dutta, account director of KANTAR IMRB, the research firm which conducted the survey.
The study surveyed 568 IT professionals across Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, NCR, Kolkata and Ahmedabad on how an IT professional in India likes to learn, their views on various learning methods, how they have set learning goals and how it links to their personal and career growth. The second report surveyed 106 IT companies across the services and product space and looks at how the IT industry is making learning interesting with gamification, how many companies are adopting it and what experience bracket they believe is the right target for gamified learning.
