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Adrian Harvey

CEO

Elephants Don't Forget

The race to the bottom must

stop!

As L&D professionals and suppliers of learning

technology, we have a collective responsibility

to the sector and to the employees in the

corporate workplace, who rely on L&D to help

them to improve and develop.

Essentially, we have a responsibility to help

employers to educate and their employees

beyond their current role, and to fulfil their true

workplace potential. This responsibility

transcends individual competition for

promotion and recognition, and corporate

competition between technology suppliers.

This responsibility underpins a healthy

corporate L&D sector.

I'm an ex C-suite executive of household-name

regulated firms who has been both a recipient

of training, and a sponsor of in-house L&D and

external suppliers. I now supply artificial

intelligence to the sector and I see it at a crossroads and dangerously close to becoming

permanently damaged.

Career lottery

There is a real risk of the industry dumbing

down to the lowest common denominator in

an apparent race to deliver low cost training in

the least disruptive (to business as usual)

fashion. Hence the focus on the wonderful

array of clever and super-efficient technology.

My concern is not about technology that

facilitates better cost efficiencies and more

interesting and engaging user experiences.

This is to be applauded. Rather, it is my belief

that increasingly, employers do not see their

role as an educator and most importantly, do

not see the correlation between investment in

employee education and EBITDA (earnings

before interest, tax, depreciation and

amortization).

It seems that the development of human

capital to full workplace potential is

unfashionable in the UK and other markets. I

previously worked for an ex nationalised

industry (British Gas) and saw the genuine

value created and harvested through a deepseated belief in the training and development

of young men and women through traditional

apprenticeship programmes.

A good friend and ex British Gas colleague (still

serving after 30 years) tells me that being

accepted as an apprentice 30 years ago was

akin to 'winning the career lottery'. I wonder

how many youngsters and employers feel the

same way today?

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