Learning Paths: How to Develop, Implement and Measure

Webinar Overview

According to a Work Institute study, the absence of career development opportunities stands as the leading cause of employee turnover.

To address this challenge, learn how you can deploy learning paths as an effective tool to strengthen skill development in manufacturing. Learn how to implement, improve, and monitor success of learning paths.

The discussion is led by Learning and Development Leader, Paula Tewksbury (formerly at Celanese and Dupont) who has 25 years of experience implementing learning paths and broader workforce development programs in manufacturing environments. Paula is also joined by Jebi Mathew, SVP Vector Solutions to moderate the discussion.

What you can expect to learn:

• How to use role-based learning paths to build skills and knowledge for new and existing employees
• Creative and effective ways that manufacturing companies can use eLearning in training programs to foster career development
• How to monitor your team’s progress, identify areas for improvement, and streamline the overall learning experience
• Insights into real-life success stories and best practices from an industry expert

Video Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome to our webinar, “How to Develop, Implement, and Measure.”

Speaker Introductions

I’m Lauren with Vector Solutions, and I’ll be serving as your webinar organizer today. We are very excited to welcome you and provide this opportunity to discover how to deploy learning paths as an effective tool to strengthen skill development in manufacturing. We are Vector Solutions, and we aim to make your organization safer, smarter, and better. If you’re not familiar with us, we make learning management systems, online training courses, and accredited continuing education for many industries. We also offer a risk intelligence and communication platform, as well as EHS and SDS management software.

Awesome, thank you, Lauren. It is so great to be here.

Jebi, do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first?

You please go ahead.

Paula Tewksbury

All right, well, my name is Paula Tewksbury. I’m a learning leader, mentor, and master facilitator. I hail from DuPont—was with DuPont for more than 30 years, and 25 of those in a learning and development role. And I had a unique path. So, it started in production, and really, that’s where I started becoming really interested in learning, development, and training, because I felt like my training was okay and could have been better. I got into some site training roles and, at the end of my career, was the corporate learning leader for operations and engineering in the Center of Excellence. And really, what that means is just supporting all of our sites and developing solutions to help people at sites and the manufacturing organization excel.

I also worked with lots of different companies while working with DuPont. We had lots of mergers and acquisitions, so we were exposed to Dow Chemical and Pioneer C, Danisco, Soleil, International Flavors and Fragrance, and all the divestitures, acquisitions, and mergers that took place there. But learning and development—through it all, and trying to collect or part out and piece out so that the manufacturing facilities could keep rolling—you know, that was really important. And so I’m grateful that I got exposure to all that.

But Jebi, how about you? Why don’t you share?

Jebi Mathew

Yeah, thanks, Paula, for being with us. And I’m excited to hear some more about your experiences as we go on. For everyone on here, my name is Jebi Mathew. I lead the marketing team at Vector. I’ve been leading teams for many years, and as part of that, I’ve partnered with colleagues in learning, development, and training to build learning paths for my teams. So excited to be here—and share some of the ABCs of learning paths as you all think about how to build or enhance organizational performance in your respective industries.

What Is a Learning Path?

The first thing we’re going to look at is just what a learning path is. We’re here to talk about learning paths, and we’re going to talk about a lot of things—because you just don’t pick up a learning path. You’ve got to figure out what it’s going to be. And so we’re going to talk about a process to get us there, but I just want to give a high-level definition and get us thinking about what a learning path is.

Challenges Learning Paths Can Solve

For me, one of the challenges is the time-to-ramp-up. I just found that, you know, the more intentional we are, the faster people get up to speed—especially in job functions that have high turnover. So that’s one challenge that we’re dealing with right now.

Great, thank you, Jamie. “Compliance training for renewals,” okay. See that from Joseph. Thank you, Joseph. Thank you, Joseph. “New employees onboarding.” So that’s similar to the ramp discussion. “Operator positions.” So Zwayne, sounds like there’s some specific roles maybe that you know, Learning Paths can particularly help with. Very good, thank you. “Turnover reduction,” okay. Something super costly, super costly for the business, both from a quality, you know, ramp perspective, so for sure. “How do you show value?” That’s a good one, Ron. A lot of times, when we do things, it’s really hard to figure out what’s actually driving value, what parts of the organization are involved, and how they interact with the business. So great point there. Thanks, Ron. I have one too, just “motivation.” And people feel like they’ve achieved something, and they’ve learned something, they have something new, they have confidence to do their job. Yeah, that’s a good one. There are some other ones coming in, such as “data capture to standardize” and “development for promotions,” right? How do you get to the next step in the organization? Very targeted learning, right? We know all learning isn’t fit for everyone. That’s a good one, Arjun. We’re going to talk a little bit about how to do that and potential accelerators to do that. So thank you.

Why Learning Paths Matter

This is meant to talk a little bit about why learning paths are important. And so we know that there’s basically a bunch of unfulfilled jobs out there, right? There’s a real labor shortage. A study projected about 2.1 million unfulfilled jobs by 2030, and all were really focused on manufacturing because of the lack of skilled labor, according to the Manufacturing Institute.

So now we’re gonna talk a little bit about learning paths, okay? And we talked a little bit about the definition of learning paths together, but as we were preparing for this, we tried to think of a good analogy of a learning path.

Stages of a Learning Path

The first thing that we need to do is know where we’re starting from. From there, we can talk about checkpoints, goals, and the steps along the way—which is how we build out an effective learning path.

The ADDIE Model Overview

So if we move on to the next bit, we’re going to take us through a model called ADDIE. I’m going to use these five phases to share some ways to, like a how-to, right? How do you start understanding what learning paths you need to have in your organization and what parts and pieces to put in those learning paths? And we’re gonna use this five-phase model, ADDIE, so it helps build effective trait learning solutions. So analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation, and we’re gonna go through each one of these and talk about it.

Phase 1: Analysis

So, the first phase of the ADDIE model is analysis. In this phase, you’re looking at what knowledge and skills you need for a particular role. You might start by analyzing what is currently being done, what’s missing, and what’s changing in the job or industry. This could mean reviewing job descriptions, talking to managers or subject matter experts, or reviewing performance data.

Then, the other part of the analysis is to think about what content I have, what facilities I have, and what technology I have available to us. So maybe you have something like a Vector Solutions product available to you where the content’s already built and the tests are already built. That’s awesome. But how can you utilize something like that in the best way? Or are there things that we have to develop in-house? And then what people resources do you need? So it can’t be done; it’s not a one-man show, and you need a team. So, in the analysis phase, it is just understanding what is available to you and what the needs are.

Phase 2: Design

So in the design phase: learning objectives, defining those objectives, being specific, measurable, time-based. I know we’re all aware of those things—and those are things that we have to do; we should be doing. These are the best practices that we can use to enable our learners to achieve.

And then, what’s your strategy? Really nail down your strategy. What are you going to do? Ensure that there are clear links between the content that you’re bringing in or developing and the objectives. And is there a logical sequence of activities? Or when you think about the seventy-twenty-ten, could you do some online learning and then drive some in a safe environment, some doing in a safe environment, and then you might have some activities that are out in the field so that learners realize that I went through this content, I can do it to a certain level, but it’s also relevant to the position that I’m taking. And so just thinking about all those, what’s your strategy gonna be as you start developing the content and the materials and your pathways going forward?

Phase 3: Development

So, moving into design—of course, design—and all you all are learning professionals, I’m sure you know all about this. But it’s good to go back to a process so that you can really remind—or we have to remind and refresh—ourselves. You know, what are the right things, the best practices, the best steps to take?

So as we move into development, this is where you’re really generating the content. And you’re developing guidance for instructors. You understand what supporting media you are going to be using. So maybe it’s a product like Vector. Maybe it’s, you know, there’s lots of content creation out there already, as well as tools to help with content creation. I think of ChatGPT; I’ve used it many times. And to generate, like, just here, what’s a simple curriculum for this? And it could be an outline you still have to fill in. It’s not taking away a position, but it could help you move along a lot faster if we use technology. And so the other part of development is really to validate and review the pathway that you’ve created. So, look for places for pilot testing so you can refine the pathway and get feedback from our stakeholders, our leaders, and our users.

And I think some keys to the success of that are to have templates in whatever you do. To create a communication plan. So, in the development of content, we are also developing how we are going to implement and start communicating and drip-feeding to folks. Then, have some evaluation to make sure that the resources that you’re building meet the goals that you set forth and the objectives you set forth in design.

Phase 4: Implementation

And so in implementation, as you said, it’s really where you’re preparing your trainers and instructors to, and you might do that even ahead of time, right? Like, you got to get folks prepared to implement if they’re going to be delivering courseware, if they’re going to be supporting a learning management system, or whatever technology you’re using to deliver. And, here, you’re also engaging the learners about what these learning pathways are, what the expectations are, how they are going to interact with those materials and activities, and then engaging the leaders to support the learners. So, really giving the leaders a nugget. Sometimes our leaders, you say, go out there and support what we’re doing. But we have to prepare those folks. It’s important to prepare our leaders and give them so that we have consistent messaging. We have some common language that we’re speaking to as this goes out, and actually, the development of that would be in the development phase, but as you implement, you want your leaders to have something to take out, to share with the learners to support what’s going on with the pathways.

Phase 5: Evaluation

And then there was one other thing that I wanted to add. There was a comment in the chat, which is a very insightful comment, which said, you know, I’m just going to read it off. “So the learning paths should have a pathway to empowering employees and preparing them for the future, and not only about business needs.” And I think that’s a really good reminder.

Very cool, yeah. So Gil said, “adding a survey activity to qualifications in the LMS.” Very good. “Midpoint check-in certifications,” “post-training surveys” from Jennifer. Yep, that’s good. I like that. Vary throughout the different learning points, you know, different types of activities. So that’s good. This is an interesting one, “analyzing missed questions.” So what are the questions people frequently get wrong, and maybe why, right? Is there an intervention? That’s needed. And so that’s, yeah, that’s a good one. Thank you, David. Yeah, is there no content that supports that question, or is the question just written poorly? You know, it could be that it’s not; it’s a confusing question, right? So, having a mechanism to do that is great. That’s awesome. Yeah.

Okay, like we’ve got one more. Okay, a different approach from Joshua: “I challenge people informally with questions, asking what they’re doing and what they’re up to,” right? So kind of real time, right? How is the knowledge actually sinking in? That’s very good. And even Joshua, if you can take these informal interactions and formalize them in a way for yourself, you know, just so that you’ve, you know, you constantly are gathering some data of what people are saying, because there might be some thread that everyone’s saying this. Nobody likes that, or people really like this. Cool. Very cool.

Learning Path Templates & LMS Integration

That’s awesome. I’m glad to hear that. And we had a comment from Mark: “These prebuilt paths have been extremely valuable. We’ve used some of them as is, and I’ve also used the skill set categories within the individual paths to build your own paths for some roles.” So I think someone earlier in the chat talked about, I, it was Henry, by the way, who I, sorry, Henry, I finally got, I didn’t see your name earlier, but you talked a little bit about making sure the paths are developed so that you can help use that as a way to communicate upward development or lateral development. So when you have some stats, it’s very clear to individuals, okay, if I want to get to the next level, here’s some of the training I might want to do ahead of time, right? So that I get a sense, maybe you’ll like the job or not like the job, you know? So that’s another way to test the waters a bit. And so thank you for that feedback.

Okay, so we have one comment, says, “We also do what we call knowledge sharing sessions for employees to train others in the job areas and assessments afterwards.” So, facilitating that sort of peer-to-peer learning makes a ton of sense.

Open Q&A

How can I use the tool?

Jebi, it looks like we have our first question here. “How can I use the tool?” Okay, so if you’re an existing Vector customer, you can reach out to your account rep, or you can, you know, maybe just, we can get back to you maybe after the session. It’s a new piece of functionality that just needs to be configured and added. And then if you’re not an existing vector customer, you can just reach out to us we’ll, and I’ll be happy to show you that and show you how to set it up, what the package involves, and so forth.

Does your model show the learner’s percent complete from the overall learning path?

For the next question, you have a person, Lauren, who answered that question and asked the question. So we can reach out directly within a day. Our next question here is, “does your model show the learner’s percent complete from the overall learning path? Within the dashboard.” That is a really good question. I honestly don’t know. We can get back to you. I hope we do, yeah, because that could be a very good metric for success, but we can definitely get to you. I know that as we integrated into our learning management system, we had that capability to see exactly where people were, what time they were spending within each. That’s okay.

How can I emphasize the value of Learning Paths to my leaders?

I have another question here: “How can I emphasize the value of Learning Paths to my leaders?” Paula, do you have any thoughts on that one?

Accelerators for Success

If you have feedback on ours and you’re like, “Hey, this is actually a couple of tweaks here,” we’d love to hear it. Again, we’ve worked with a bunch of our clients to kind of put these together, but there’s always—great, we love feedback and new ideas.

Now, in addition to the learning path templates themselves, another way to sort of accelerate efforts is to embed some of this into your learning management technology. So for folks here that have an LMS, you can build in those learning paths—role-specific learning paths—into the LMS. At Vector, our courses can be played on any LMS, but we also have our own LMS, which has been built for very specific industries. And we’ve actually built some of the learning paths into our LMS. So you can kind of go in and say, All right, well, I want to assign my team operator training. Here’s the standard template of 15 to 20 courses or 5 courses that operators typically see, which can then be edited to meet your needs. So if you’re not already using an LMS, think about how to build that within. Most LMSs have some of that functionality where you can build, you know, role-specific, you know, plans, but that’s a great way to help bring this into a system, right? So that people are utilizing, it’s not one-off or manager-dependent on what type of training individuals.

People love that. People love that, right? Like, I want to know—I want to just know the things that I don’t know and be able to show the things that I do, you know, and make it more relevant to folks. For sure. Absolutely.

The Role of Assessment

And so, look, the learning paths are convenient in LMS. Another thing that Paula mentioned was the importance of testing in the ADDIE model and the assessment, as well as that ski slope that I showed you guys earlier. So we go to the next slide. One of the other things that, again, is built into a lot of LMSs is the ability to test to see where people are, okay? In the assessment phase, like, where are your learners? And again, there’s qualitative, we talked about qualitative and quantitative ways, you know, to assess that. So, we have a tool within our LMS called competency assessment. It’s just recently launched functionality. Just came out a few weeks ago. And basically, what it does is it allows individuals, or allows learning leaders to set up an assessment based on where people are. And that assessment can be a combination of questions that you provide and that you want to put in, but you can also pull from our own course content. If there’s a course on pumps, you add those questions into the test bank, right then and there. These would be questions that are typically at the end of the course. So that way, you can see whether people actually know the material or not.

And there is a ton of savings here in avoiding training that people do not need to know—and also understanding potentially where you need to focus in your on-the-job training, in your simulations, in your management-level check-ins, and so forth. So, typically, what we see our customers advise our customers to do is do the testing, use our course questions if you’re utilizing our training content. Also, add your company-owned questions, assign the training, let the learners learn, and then come back to it. So again, something I would highly recommend doing is that it can save your team and, as a manager, a lot of time, you know, in terms of lost productivity and doing training that, you know, may or may not be needed and hit the mark. So that’s another new feature that we have there.

Closing Remarks

Okay, it looks like it’s 3 p.m. here—so that’s all the time we have for questions today.

I just want to say thank you again to Paula and Jebi for the lively and educational discussion—and thank you to our attendees for joining us. We know that your time is valuable, and we appreciate that you spent the last hour with us to learn how to develop, implement, and measure learning paths. And as mentioned at the beginning of the webinar, this recording and slides will be sent to you along with a few educational resources after this webinar. Thank you all again, and have a great day.