Five Reasons More U.S. Manufacturers Use Online Training

While many U.S. industrial facilities still use time-consuming classroom training for repetitive site-specific orientations, more progressive manufacturers are turning to online training to reduce injuries, lower costs, and make better use of valuable classroom training time. Here are five important reasons why.

1. Make better use of valuable classroom time. There is often unwarranted contention between classroom and online training. Why? Because many trainers see online training as a threat to their value as a trainer. The opposite is true. A custom, site-specific online training can help trainers make much better use of their valuable classroom time by drawing more clear lines between basic orientation information that can be done online and hands-on practical instruction that should be done in-person.
2. Train any time, from anywhere. Online training has a fundamental advantage when it comes to site-specific training for new employees or contractors. It can be done by anyone, any time, from anywhere with an Internet connection BEFORE setting foot on-site.
3. Train employees and contractors with consistent information. If you’ve got three trainers on staff, you’ve probably got three completely different trainings being given from the exact same information. An online training designed specifically for your site offers everyone access to a consistent set of information, offered in the same way, every time. So everyone gets consistent information. And when it’s necessary to illustrate concepts involving machine operations and processes, a custom training can make it relevant with images and video of your equipment, on your site, with your procedures.
4. Extend the life of your training courses. Online training can be edited and updated seamlessly at any time. Policies change. Equipment gets replaced. Lines get added. With online training, anything, really ANYTHING can be edited and updated as needed.
5. Meet compliance requirements for site-specific training. The following Wikipedia excerpt illustrates one of many misconceptions about the use of online training:
    
   “Computers and videos can be a great addition to a company's safety training program. As stand-alone resources, they may not be adequate in meeting OSHA's training requirements because they are not site-specific.”

   True, a generic online course ‘may not be adequate’ on its own to meet site-specific training requirements. But savvy facility managers are working with course producers to develop site-specific training that works for their employees and contractors. And they’re using online CBTs as a training tool that improves the overall effectiveness of their training and compliance program.

So while the costs of outsourcing online training are becoming more affordable due in part to more widespread use, there’s a reason. Five, in fact. And if you’re not currently considering site-specific online training that includes 3D animation with imagery and processes specific to your organization, you can be sure your competitors are.

Bjorn Ansbro is the business development manager at Convergence Training, a team of individuals passionate about creating engaging, effective training, and enabling companies to utilize and capture their existing expertise and knowledge to create the most effective training programs possible.