Imagine you’re an organisation where your employees completed a training needs assessment. However, later you discover that your salespeople need training on effective negotiation skills. You are familiar with off-the-shelf training courses for salespeople and wonder such general training will be practical for salespeople to understand sales closing techniques? Or will they have to choose a bespoke training method?
Off-the-shelf training topics typically cover general subjects such as sales, leadership, negotiation, etc.; subjects that require common competencies across different industries. These can be categorised as universal skills which can be learned and mastered.
Off-the-shelf training programs will cover competencies that are general in nature. They help to develop a learner’s capability to a certain extent. For example, an off-the-shelf training program for Negotiation might contain an activity where the person listens and paraphrases what they have heard in a general scenario with a generic company’s generic employee. The company might not be in your industry or maybe not even relevant to you, but the learning scenario remains realistic and true to nature. You will be practising your skills regardless. Whatever you learn is for you to transfer those skills in your role at your company.
However, if you are working towards building a real-life proficiency even for general competency, depending on the opportunity to learn and practice your skills is where bespoke training comes in. A custom training module on Effective Feedback, for example, would present content and activities in the context of real-life scenarios. This will help employees get acquainted with real-life situations and be prepared for the exact same scenario and conversation. Bespoke training allows you to upskill from experts who understand your company’s culture and challenges and specifically focus on them.
A custom course on Building Successful Team can provide leaders with opportunities to tackle actual day-to-day problems and give time to leaders to focus on solutions. All of this, while developing, enhancing, and practising fundamental leadership skills. The benefit of custom training helps the person focus on a specific skillset, paying more attention to the pain points and receiving comprehensive training.
The shift from off-the-shelf training course to bespoke training comes when an organisation is looking for more than just a training module. Bespoke training allows organisations to curate a training session that focuses specifically on their challenges and find a solution with the training. While off-the-shelf training courses are perfect for the generic audience and general knowledge, focusing on skills that have a more comprehensive application, bespoke training focuses on a specific issue and solves it. Custom learning programs offer the perfect opportunity to define and build differentiation as well as engage and support the most critical asset – your employees.
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