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E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R YH e l p i n g C r e a t e T h e B l u e p r i n t F o r T h e 2 1 s t C e n t u r y I T W o r k f o r c e

TECHNOLOGY LEARNING

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CONTENTS

REDEFINING ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY LEARNING 4

SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD 4

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION EVOLUTION 5

THE BIGGER PICTURE - DIGITAL SKILLS IN THE UK 5

PANEL DEBATE: WHAT IS THE FUTURE 6

OF TECHNOLOGY LEARNING IN THE ENTERPRISE?

PANEL DEBATE: THE CHASM BETWEEN IT 8

AND LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT IN THE

ENTERPRISE - IS IT REAL?

CREATING A FRAMEWORK TO CHANGE THE 10

LEARNING CULTURE OF YOUR ORGANISATION

E M P OW E R YO U R T E A M . P OW E R YO U R B U S I N E SS .

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Pluralsight’s first Technology Learning Leadership Summit was held

at the London Stock Exchange in June 2016 and brought together

over 50 technology leaders and Chief Learning Officers.

Alongside industry thought leaders and market influencers,

the Summit debated one of most pressing issues facing businesses

today – the global technology skills shortage.

RE D EF I N I NG ENTERPRISE TE C HNOLOGY LEARNING

S OF TWAR E I S EAT ING THE WORLD

E M P OW E R YO U R T E A M . P OW E R YO U R B U S I N E SS .

If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to

wake up this morning as a software and analytics company

- Jeff Immelt, CEO and Chairman of GE

Advances in technology such as data analytics,

artificial intelligence and cyber-security are

profoundly influencing how businesses operate.

Whether it’s through software analytics

to make more strategic decisions or

protecting customer data with robust

security software, all companies are

becoming more technology-driven as they

seek a competitive long term advantage.

DIG ITAL TRANSFORMATION EVOLU T ION

Naturally this has implications on the pace

with which businesses acquire and retain digital

skills as they look to digitally transform. As

Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard put it at the

Summit, developers’ skills have a “half-life” of

two years, meaning that every two years, only

half of their skills remain relevant.

As a result, there’s now a race to understand

emerging technologies, keep pace with the

changing skills landscape, and understand how

new technologies will impact all businesses.

“ ”

THE B IGGER P ICTURE - D IG ITAL SK ILLS IN THE UK

At a societal and economic level, the UK has some significant skills

challenges to overcome:

• 50% of companies feel that they are

struggling with low productivity due

to a failure to invest properly in

technology training

• 72% of large UK companies feel that they

are suffering from the tech skills gap

• By 2018, the UK will have a shortage

of 1.5 million security professionals

These facts highlight how deep the digital

skills shortage runs in the UK, but this is a trend

mirrored globally. Businesses will need to

consider shifting to a 360-degree approach

to learning: instant, scalable, and mobile, so

employees can learn and implement new

technologies at an unprecedented speed.

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Adopt a culture of learning

Teams need to build a culture to

encourage learning within their teams.

It is important that companies create

‘psychologically safe’ cultures where

employees are free to learn, try new

things and are allowed to fail as part

of their journey to develop their skillsets.

Help your IT teams develop

a broader ‘soft’ skillset

Digitally transformed businesses

need people with interpersonal skills,

leadership capability, commercial

acumen and a strong sense of social

responsibility to be effective and work

cross-functionally.

Enable learning - anywhere, anyplace

Mobile learning emerged as a key

trend. Software needs to be made

available so learning can be consumed

on-the-go, at home as well as in the

office. This is particularly in demand

by the millennial generation.

Encourage self-directed learning

Shifting to a self-learning culture empowers

employees to take control of their own skills

training. Taking this approach enables them

to pursue the most relevant courses for them,

enhancing motivation and engagement with

their organisation.

Panel contributions came from:

Sarah Lindsell, Director

of Global Learning Technology

& Transformation, PwC

Jon Buttriss, CEO, BCS Learning

& Development

Simon Tarry, Director of Engineering Strategy

Implementation, Ticketmaster International

PANEL DEBATE : WHAT IS THE FUTUR E OF TECHNOLOGY L E A RNI NG I N THE ENTERPRISE?

Firstly, there is a challenge to ensure that IT teams can learn and navigate

the constantly evolving digital skills required for their specific roles.

Secondly, there is also a growing demand for IT workers to have a deep tech

knowledge of trending areas including, cloud, big data, agile software

development, machine learning and cyber security.

E M P OW E R YO U R T E A M . P OW E R YO U R B U S I N E SS .

The panel discussion identified four trends revealing how businesses and their

teams can anticipate the next wave of technologies to impact their business:

The first panel discussion found that a number trends around technology learning

are rapidly changing what is required of both IT workers and organisations.

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PANEL DEBATE : THE CHASM BETWEEN IT A ND LEARNI NG A ND DEVELOPM ENT IN THE ENTERPRISE - I S IT R EAL?

Promote openness

It was commented that there should be

a culture of ‘openness’ between both

teams. Open conversations recognising

the strengths of everyone across the

board should be encouraged and will help

understand how they can work together

as one team.

Respect each other’s expertise

Both teams should know and respect

each team’s expertise. For example,

the IT department will have a deeper

understanding of their industry, whereas

the L&D team will have a better

understanding of how people learn

and how to encourage learning.

Effective communication is king

All agreed that effective communication

is critical for strong collaboration.

Both teams should regularly schedule

meetings and use internal social media

platforms to keep conversations open

online and build rapport. In one company,

members of the L&D team join most

important IT department meetings so

they can keep up-to-date on their

immediate business priorities.

Experiment with technology

Shifting to a self-learning culture empowers

employees to take control of their own skills

training. Taking this approach enables them

to pursue the most relevant courses for them,

enhancing motivation and engagement with

their organisation.Attendees agreed that the ‘chasm’ between these two

departments is a current reality but shouldn’t exist in the future.

However, all acknowledged improvement in the industry with

some firms taking several steps to close this gap and make

both teams work better together.

In addition, the panel found a number of other recommendations on how

the two departments could work more effectively with each other to drive

enhanced learning outcomes for staff and the business. These included:

You need to create L&D teams that have both the

passion and knowledge for tech so they can better

support the needs of their IT department

– Paul Morgan, Head of Learning

and Development at Telefonica O2

“ ”

E M P OW E R YO U R T E A M . P OW E R YO U R B U S I N E SS .

One company has taken a radical approach

re-building their L&D team from the ground up:

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As technology continues to transform how

all businesses operate, it requires extensive

partnership between learners, L&D and IT

teams to change the learning culture of

the organisation.

It will also take a shift in mind-set

and behaviour to accelerate the adoption

of on-demand, online continuous learning

platforms and processes. Early adopters

are already seeing huge strides in their

capability with new skills, and enhanced

productivity levels as a result.

As IT teams continue to demand digital

learning experiences anywhere, and on any

device, it will further drive the need for

a 360-degree approach to learning,

encompassing assessment,

skills development and mentoring.

We’d like to thank the participating

panellists, speakers and event attendees

for a thought provoking and engaging

day of discussion.

Panel contributions came from:

Paul Morgan, Head of Learning &

Development, O2 (Telefonica UK)

Scott James, Head of Technical

Architecture, Credit Suisse

Nigel Roocroft, Technology Learning

Partner, KPMG

For more information on Pluralsight,

please visit: www.pluralsight.com/business

C R E ATI NG A FRAMEWORK TO C H ANGE THE LEARNING C U LTUR E OF YOUR ORGANI SAT I ON .

E M P OW E R YO U R T E A M . P OW E R YO U R B U S I N E SS .

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Covent Garden

London, WC2E 9RZ

UK

+44 (0)20 7849 3525

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