training & development
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In an Agile World, How
Does Training Keep Pace?
WORKERS NEED TO CONTINUALLY HONE THEIR SKILLS
The “third platform” – a term coined by the International
Data Corporation (IDC) to describe the interdepen-dencies
between mobile devices and apps, cloud services,
mobile broadband networks, Big Data analytics and social
technologies – is driving a significant change in IT infrastructure
and IT operating models. This is a profound shift with far-reach-ing
implications for how business is done.
Half of all CEOs surveyed in a recent Gartner study expect
their industries to be unrecognizably transformed by digitization.
Solutions and infrastructure that used to be hardware-driven are
shifting to software; software business models are shifting to sub-scriptions.
These changes are shifting risk from the customer back
onto the vendor. Vendors are under pressure to help customers re-alize
outcomes from the solutions they have sold. Failure to do so
has a bearing on future business.
BETTER SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS
This evolving landscape requires continuous evolution of skills.
According to a PwC survey, in 2015, 73 per cent of all respon-dents
named the availability of key skills as one of the top three
threats to their organizations’ growth prospects. This is a jump
over 63 per cent in 2014.
To keep up with these changes, learners are under tremen-dous
pressure. The shift to a software-based IT posture is further
accelerating the velocity of change. DevOps models and agile de-velopment
sprints are resulting in new code being pushed into
production every few weeks.
An untrained workforce exposes employers to two risks. First is
the risk of infrastructure outages that can cost enterprises billions
of dollars in lost business and productivity. A recent Dimensional
Research study showed that a vast majority of outages arise from
By Milind Gurjar
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ SEPTEMBER 2017 ❚ 35