Cake, Toast, and Exponential Change

This week’s Google alerts were a bit skimpy on the ESL side but contained worthwhile teaching and training news. Check out a few other good reads that did not make it to a full paragraph below: technology and nursing, learning English as a refugee in UK, and Sherri McKeever’s experience teaching online.

My favorite article this week comes from Erik Shelton, Director of Operations at ONEIL. Shelton writes about the challenges the manufacturing industry is facing as a result of baby boomer retirements. I’m especially interested in this topic since I have done so much training about generational differences in the workplace.

Shelton shares the staggering statistic that every day 10,000 baby boomers turn 65. This retirement boom is “changing the face of industry and creating critical labor challenges.”  I would agree that all industries are facing losses of tenured employees. In February, I joined a new training team at Penn State Health and since that time nearly 12% of our floor has retired. Don’t get me wrong, the cake and celebrations have been wonderful but losing that kind of long-standing knowledge in a department takes a toll. Losing valuable experience due to retirement is hitting the manufacturing industry especially hard as that sector tends to have the highest record of tenured employees.

Manufacturing is turning to technology and training to prepare for the future and a new workforce. The next two generations (Millennials and Gen Z) heading to the workforce have seen more screen time than any generation in the past and they crave that avenue to learn and socialize. Learning management systems will play a key role in allowing upcoming employees to train on the go and be engaged with their learning. Shelton describes the new workforce as being motivated by tech but also empowered by it.

Nikki Gilliland also writes this week in, “Four learning & development trends in the digital age,” about strategies needed to recruit and retain talent, motivate and engage employees, and create a values based culture. Again, technology is key with professionals who seek a flexible, creative, and collaborative work environment. By 2020, (that’s next year, folks!) millennials will make up more than 1/3 of the workforce and they are looking for customized learning experiences and an anywhere, anytime, any device capability when it comes to their training.

When I read all of this, I am more excited than ever to be in the field of Instructional Technology. Not only are schools and other institutions searching for talent to create robust digital learning, it is essential for organizations to survive. This fact is best summed up this week by Laurent Corneille in, “We live in an uncertain world.” Corneille writes, “Pleading technological ignorance in a world that requires technology to function is no longer an excuse.” Corneille goes on to discuss how quickly the world is changing and that technology is changing exponentially.

To understand this exponential change Corneille gives the following example (which made me giggle): “The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), that helped guide man to the moon in 1969 […] had less computing power than today’s modern toaster.”

I’ll never look at a piece of toast the same way…