Just-in-Time learning, learning while working

New tools, methods, and trends are coming every day. Keep your team up to date, without wasting time, thanks to Just-in-Time Learning.

The evolution of training

The world is changing rapidly: new methods and tools are emerging, new industries are emerging. It is crucial that the skills of your teams stay up to date in order to remain competitive. Many training solutions already exist. But it is hard to stay up to date without wasting time. Traditional learning methods take time, are difficult to adapt to the specific needs of your business, and do not take into account the particularities of each member of your team.

That is why Just-in-Time Learning has emerged: a method that breaks the line between training and work, so that each member of your team can improve their skills while working.

In this article, we are going to see how Just-in-Time Learning is revolutionizing the approach to training, and why this is the method we have chosen at Mendo.

The consumption of information

Information has never been so easy to access. YouTube, Netflix, Amazon: in just a few clicks, anyone can access any information they may need. It has completely changed our habits, our consumption and the way we behave. No need to wait months for a book to be available near home, no need to remember everything, the information is at hand, at any time! The multiplication of information has also had another consequence: the decrease in attention span.

But, contrary to our habits, corporate training has not evolved as much. Courses are virtual and accessible at any time, and videos have spread. But they are still courses, often poorly adapted to the specificities of the learner and, above all, completely detached from work. The learner stops working, takes time to attend a course and then comes back to work. This separation makes the course abstract and disconnected from what the learner is actually doing while working. In addition, if they learn something but do not apply it quickly, they may forget it and not remember it when they need it.

This separation makes learning less effective and less motivating for learners. Who would want to learn something without even knowing if it would really help them?

Learning differently

It is to respond to these problems that contextual learning has developed: a learning method where the learner is put in context, in order to directly apply what they have learned and reinforce their new knowledge.

There are several possible ways to do contextual learning. The one we are going to see today is Just-in-Time Learning: a method that reduces the barriers between work and learning, by providing the user with the information they need, when they need it, while working. In this way, the learner does not stop working, does not lose focus and only receives information that is relevant to them. They can thus immediately use this information to be more productive, and retain it by putting it into practice directly.

The benefits of Just-in-Time Learning

Time saved. No need for long abstract courses. All members of your team have what they need when they need it, and each training is adapted to the needs and the level of each person, to optimize the progress of your teams. No need to wait for the training period or for the arrival of a teacher to be able to progress. Your team no longer needs to waste time taking a training because they may need it one day. Your time and that of your team are precious, don't waste them!

Concrete and immediate results. Your employees are supported as they work with the information they need, making them more productive and reducing errors, while allowing them to learn.

These results allow learners to immediately feel their rise in skills, which motivates them and encourages learning within the company.

Agility. Just-in-Time Learning is available at all times, whether to onboard a newcomer or to adapt to a novelty in your sector, and allows you to react to market changes without wasting time organizing training sessions. It adapts to the specific needs of your team. You can thus increase the productivity of your teams and manage your projects more effectively.

The flaws of Just-in-Time Learning

Despite all these qualities and the numerous problems it solves, Just-in-Time Learning also has flaws.

Implementing Just-in-Time Learning

Setting up Just-in-Time Learning may seem simple. After all, when you ask a colleague for something, or when you have a problem and look for a solution on Google, you get the information you need, when you need it. That is Just-in-Time Learning.

But with this method, finding what one is looking for is not always easy, and sometimes, in complex cases, someone may not even be aware of what they really need. And it is easy to get distracted and lose focus when you see more information than what you are looking for.

To implement it effectively, it is necessary to:

All these prerequisites make the implementation of a Just-in-Time Learning system complex. It is possible to use new technologies to study the level and needs of your employees and to automatically send them what they need, when they need it.

But this can be complicated for a company to organize, which is why there are companies in this field that can offer your employees a turnkey Just-in-Time Learning system that can be easily deployed.

Just-in-Time Learning at Mendo

At Mendo, we believe that this way of learning surpasses others and has a huge untapped potential. That is why we decided to help businesses take advantage of it. We focused on a specific area: Microsoft Excel.

We have a virtual assistant that integrates directly into your team's Excel sheets. It analyzes the behavior of your employees and gives them advice to increase productivity; it warns them when they have made a mistake or forgotten something. Above all, it recommends the right lessons at the right time. Thanks to it, they can work and learn at the same time, without even having to leave Excel.

The future of Just-in-Time Learning

Just-in-Time Learning is still young and continues to develop. With technological advances, new training methods will continue to appear. But with the way information is now consumed, Just-in-Time Learning will surely become more important within businesses.

To find out more

• Implementing Just in Time Learning
• Just in Time Training Best Practice to Adopt in Business
• What is Just In Time Learning