Corporate training is facing major challenges. Employees are no longer engaging with traditional forms of training including e-learning, finding the whole experience unexciting and boring. Compounding this situation is the growing numbers of ‘millennials’ entering the workforce.
The workforce is changing
The X generation, close to its retirement is being replaced for a new workforce generation called the “Millennials”. They have new common traits that define the way they face their job and processes. Millennials are those individuals born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s. They have grown up in a time where information has become available instantly. Millennials are creating a change in how work gets done, as they work more in teams and use more technology. Millennials are well educated, skilled in technology, very self-confident, able to multi-task, and have plenty of energy. They have high expectations for themselves, and prefer to work in teams, rather than as individuals. Millennials grown up in the video game era, an era with constant stimuli and dynamism. Some facts about the use of videogames are the following:
- 58% of the population play video games
- Average age of players is 30 years old
- By age of 18, 90% of population have played video games (an average of 10 000 hours
- Millennials are 30 % of the today’s workforce and in 10 years they will be the 75%.
GBL – Game-based learning
GBL is a new training methodology in which contents are presented in a videogame format. GBL is challenging, interesting and engaging. The learning process is more effective, games improve knowledge acquisition and retention. With games, students are able to put into practice the theory, so they learn by doing, in a zero risk environment.
GBL improves problem-solving, creativity, risk assessment, and risk taking. GBL ensures learning, Students have to learn the theory in order to progress in the game. So when they finish the course they are ready to put the sklills into practice in a real situation.
While e-learning traditional courses are boring and not engaging, GBL is a dynamic, interactive and efficient way that responds to the needs of a new workforce, the Milennials.
