How to Benefit from Institute of Corrosion T&D Initiatives Online
With the coronavirus lockdown firmly in place in most parts of the world, businesses and people are adjusting to the new normal. One of the hardest hit business activities is training and development. This is bad for businesses and their employees. Of course, the safety of employees is critical but so, too, is the continual upskilling and development of those employees.
Analysis by McKinsey in early March found that already around half of in-person training and development programs had been cancelled through to the end of June 2020. As the extent of lockdown has increased across geographies, this rate of curtailment will have snowballed.
Given that your professional development is key to both your career and the future of your employer, what has been the response by businesses and how can you keep your career on track?
3 Training and Development Strategies Adopted by Businesses
Generally, we’ve seen three approaches to training and development during the lockdown:
1. Suspend/cancel training & development
Some businesses have drastically cut back or even cancelled all their training and development. They have done this to reduce costs. Some of these companies have laid off staff and are seeking to recruit experienced people to help them through this difficult period. (Staffing Future is the first company we know that has developed a not-for-profit recruitment website to match people to jobs that suit their skills specifically for COVID-19 jobs in the UK and the United States.)
2. Transition training & development as an online resource
Other businesses are helping their employees adjust to online working and encouraging continuation of CPD by transitioning existing training and development as an online resource. Such organisations are using working from home as an initiator to encourage upskilling toward a new normal that is likely to include more working from home – even after the lockdown has ended.
3. Increase accessibility to training & development
The third business model is increasing capacity and accessibility to training and development. The issue that many businesses have here is that their IT capability is already stretched. They simply don’t have the bandwidth to offer the desired depth and breadth of training and development to an army of employees wishing to connect via video.
Online Training & Development with the Institute of Corrosion
Organisations have been forced to prioritise their approach to training and development – for both what they believe is needed and what they can reasonably provide. This has necessarily meant that much training and development has been postponed or cancelled. The knock-on effect for individuals is that their own CPD – and therefore their career path – has been put on ice.
As a not-for-profit organisation committed to continuous development of knowledge and expertise within a supportive and inclusive framework (read about our core values here), the Institute of Corrosion is adjusting to the current lockdown environment at pace. We understand that it is imperative for industry professionals and members of the Institute of Corrosion to continue to develop professionally.
Training and development initiatives that we have in place include:
- A series of online training courses that can be accessed via the training and qualification pages on the ICorr website.
- The Industrial Coating Applicator Training Scheme (ICATS) ICA module is now available online. You can learn the theoretical aspects of application and complete all the tests within the programme from the comfort of your own home during lockdown. For further information, please email Kevin Harold at Kev@paintel.co.uk.
- One of our training partners, Corrodere, specialise in providing training packages developed with industry experts to ensure that users gain insight into basic corrosion, methods of surface treatment and application of protective coatings – with many of its courses available through online training. Contact Corrodere for more information.
- We are working with other training providers to enable you to continue your professional development during lockdown. For example, IMechE Argyll Ruane are working on the delivery of an online classroom-style training programme. Further announcements will be made as soon as this is available, but please email argyllruane@imeche.org for more information.
- We’re also in the process of transitioning the Fundamentals of Corrosion course for delivery online. Please, if you are interested in learning more and participating online, contact admin@icorr.org.
5 Benefits of Online Training
Because you are working from home or furloughed, you don’t need to put your professional development on hold. In fact, the online training and development initiatives we have already released and those that we are working on will help you develop a broader appeal as the world returns to work. The benefits of online training include:
- More affordable – online training and development can generally be delivered at reduced rates (and sometimes free, as with our Corrosion Engineering Division Working Day, which is now being held online)
- More flexible – adaptable to different learning styles and flexible to fit your personal timetable
- More convenient – take your course with you wherever you are, and balance between your work and free time
- More comfortable – if you don’t like sitting in classrooms, you’ll love learning in the comfort of your own home
- Improves career prospects – with more time on your hands and more flexibility to learn, taking online courses during the COVID-19 lockdown will demonstrate your commitment as well as provide valuable skills and knowledge that will help to develop your career
Make sure your career stays on track. Stay tuned to the Institute of Corrosion blog to learn of the latest developments in training and development in the corrosion industry.