These days, technology seems to change and evolve at a breakneck pace. Look at everything that’s changed in just the past decade. Today, we exist in a world defined by hybrid work, artificial intelligence, big data and digital transformation.
In this landscape, more and more employees require advanced technical skills, particularly in the SaaS sector. Hands-on technical training is arguably the best way to teach them. Let’s talk about what it involves, and what your business needs to know in order to get it right.
What is technical training?
Technical training refers to any training program or process that deals with job-specific technical content. It’s generally used to teach core technical skills and competencies, either as part of employee onboarding or for upskilling/reskilling purposes. In addition to skills, content covered by a technical training program might include:
- Proficiency with specific platforms or tools.
- Regulatory standards.
- Troubleshooting.
- Cybersecurity.
- Incident response.
For instance, IT technical training might cover management of a company’s databases, software architecture, and hardware architecture as well as development tools and processes.
Why are technical training programs important?
In addition to being crucial to professional development, technical training ensures employees are fully capable of fulfilling their responsibilities. Because those employees are more confident and competent, the organization itself makes more progress towards its goals. Other benefits of technical training include:
- Employee satisfaction and retention.
- Improved security posture.
- More effective regulatory compliance.
- Increased quality and efficiency within the workplace.
- Reduction in skills shortages and talent gaps.
- Better resource utilization.
- A better customer experience.
Best practices to optimize your technical training
(1) Identify your key concepts
Before you begin planning and implementing a technical training program, ask yourself what that program needs to teach. What are the most important facts and concepts? What do you need your trainees to know?
From there, you’ll want to define and explain each concept in a language that’s as clear and concise as possible. Once that’s done, start brainstorming how you might convey that information to your trainees. Narrative storytelling, compelling visuals and real-world examples are all excellent starting points — but you can still do more.
(2) Make it interactive
One of the most challenging things about technical training is that, in most cases, it’s not solely about knowledge. There’s also a range of practical skills and concepts associated with that knowledge. If your trainees aren’t given the opportunity to practice them, then your training is incomplete.
Don’t just show your employees how something is done in the real world, give them an opportunity to try doing it themselves. Let them take the knowledge they’ve acquired and apply it in a simulated environment. Let them experience what they’ve learned rather than just absorbing it.
Depending on the nature of your training, you might even be able to take things further by embracing microlearning, allowing people to learn while on the job.
(3) Embrace flexible, accessible delivery
Different people learn in different ways. Some employees might prefer largely visual training materials, while others would rather read, memorize, and practice. It’s important that your technical training program accounts for this, providing multiple delivery methods to fit different learning styles and preferences.
This could include taking a hybrid or blended approach to training delivery, combining in-person instructional time with self-paced or virtual instructor led training.
You’ll also want to think about accessibility — things like audio transcripts and closed captioning. Familiarize yourself with the Web Content Accessibility Initiative Guidelines (WCAG), then make sure your training adheres to them.
(4) Listen to user feedback
Does your training equip your team with the knowledge it needs to excel? That’s not something you can answer simply by looking at completion rates or measuring workplace performance. Instead, the best way to answer it is to simply ask.
Make a point of collecting user feedback after each round of training. You can then use that feedback to identify weaknesses and bottlenecks in your current training program.
(5) Leverage analytics
User feedback aside, software training generates a ton of data related to user behavior. Said data contains some absolutely invaluable insights about your employees and how they’ve engaged with your materials. In the short term, your trainers can use that data to identify users who require additional help or intervention. Proactively getting ahead of any issues learners may have and keep them moving through the training.
In the long-term, you can gain further insights into how you might improve or enhance your technical training program, while also gaining a full view of how people are engaging with it.
Supercharge your technical training with CloudShare
A successful technical training program requires a great deal of careful, strategic planning. However, it also requires a platform capable of delivering compelling materials and experiences to trainees. CloudShare can be that platform.
Our flexible, scalable virtual training software makes it easier than ever for your team to design and deliver purpose-built hands-on training for any use case — technical training or otherwise. With live-in class data and robust analytics, you’ll have actionable analytics to deliver impactful training sessions.
Book a demo to see for yourself what we can do.
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