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How to train your construction workers on the most in-demand skills in a less intrusive way? The short answer is to use a modern learning management system.

The construction industry has its physical demands. It requires workers to gain hands-on experience through on-site learning. How can eLearning become a transformative force in construction training and development?  

Using an eLearning solution, you can upskill your construction crew in a more natural and organic way. In their State of Construction 2023 Report, Deloitte recognizes self-paced learning as the most common training delivery method.   

“Technology is a great enabler for getting the right people into the construction sector,” says Eddie Tuttle – Director, The Chartered Institute of Building.  

The message is clear. Adopt a modern LMS now or get left behind.   

In this article, we’ll cover:    

1. Research data manifesting the significance of LMS for construction companies
2. Why a modern LMS for construction is helpful than a legacy one
3. How a modern LMS streamlines construction learning

New Research Backs Modern LMS for Construction Companies Training

In my research, I’ve found modern LMS systems imperative for construction learning and development. The two most relevant industry leaders, McKinsey (a global consulting firm) and Associated Builders and Contractors or ABC (a national U.S. trade association), have stated very good examples on the significance of LMS for construction companies.

Bechtel is a leading engineering and construction (E&C) player in the United States. They run a learning and development program comprising 1000+ instructor-led and eLearning courses. Through virtual learning, Bechtel ensures better retraining and continuous learning of their workforce. Like Bechtel, many construction players are updating their training and development programs. McKinsey reports that 75% of E&C players have updated construction learning in the past two years.

The 2023 Workforce Survey by ABC highlights the rise of virtual construction learning. ABC notes an increased use of online training programs in the last year to attract talent. They encourage their member contractors to invest in competency-based, market-driven education methodologies. ABC affirms that technology integration is the best way to enhance construction learning.

To sum up both studies, I’d like to say a modern LMS is the cornerstone of construction training. A flexible, modern LMS helps build a safe, skilled, and productive construction workforce.

Why Choose a Modern LMS for Construction Industry Training?

Learning management systems (LMS) are not new to construction workforce training. But why choose a modern LMS when you already have a learning platform?

I’d like to answer this question by drawing a comparison between a legacy LMS and a modern LMS. Modern LMSs are better than their legacy counterparts in many ways:

Safety and Compliance

The construction industry has the highest amount of workplace fatalities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1 in 5 fatal injuries occur in construction sites. Now let’s see how a legacy LMS and a modern LMS approach safety training.

When you use a legacy LMS to impart safety training, you need to:

1. Rely on random video recordings, generic hand-outs, and hands-on safety training.
2. Provide practical training to employees in high-risk environments.
3. It’s difficult to track what each employee has perceived.

A modern LMS helps address the safety concerns in safety training. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Train construction workers without putting them at risk. You don’t need to put them near dangerous machinery or hazardous objects.
2. Integrate AR and VR technologies to simulate high-risk training environments. It’s a more immersive and realistic alternative compared to traditional training options.
3. Ensure your team’s compliance with safety norms and workplace regulations. Use diverse training delivery formats in the modern LMS to impart compliance training. Build a safe, skilled, and productive construction workforce.

Anywhere, Anytime Training

Has your onsite team ever complained of ditching work schedules to complete training? If they have, it signals that you need to switch to a modern LMS.

Flexibility is the new normal in construction LMS learning.

Legacy learning management systems aren’t flexible. Traditional, desk-bound LMSs force you to:

1. Convince onsite construction workers to attend in-office training.
2. Squeeze training into your team’s job schedules which weakens their productivity.
3. Take no advantage of the idle hours of your workers.

Whereas, a modern LMS for construction companies is cloud-based and mobile-enabled.

1. On-site and remote learners can get trained from anywhere, anytime.
2. Employees can access training content on any authorized device, including smartphones or tablets.
3. No more worrying about construction learning affecting your employees’ job schedules. On-site teams can take up courses at their own pace, even during non-working hours.

Choose What and How to Learn

Over 90% of employees want training that’s personalized and relevant to them.

How can you upskill a roofer and a carpenter with the same set of training materials? Wouldn’t it stall your team’s performance?

Legacy LMSs don’t support tailoring learning for each user. They only help provide generic training. What happens when construction learning lacks personalization?

1. Out-of-context training can ruin your workplace morale and productivity.
2. A legacy LMS doesn’t recommend courses for each learner.
3. Non-alignment of your company’s training goals with learners’ interests.
4. Intense manual work is needed for tailoring content/course materials.

Personalized construction learning can engage and intrigue your team. And learning personalization is quite easy when you have a modern LMS.

1. Tailor training based on your team’s roles, skills, and career aspirations.
2. Provide Amazon-like course recommendations to each learner or learning group.
3. Align employee interests and career aspirations with your company’s training goals.
4. Personalize and deliver training content in any format to engage and captivate learners.

Drive Learner Engagement and Interest

Do your employees interact well with your training content? Do they show a due amount of interest in your course materials?

Driving user interest and engagement is crucial for success in construction learning.

Traditional LMS systems are monotonous and rigid. They fail to attract learners due to:

1. Limited interactivity. Employees often skip training content.
2. Lack of customization options. You may have to go with text-heavy, solo-format content.
3. No motivation. Learners don’t get credit for courses completed or milestones achieved.
4. No course suggestions or content recommendations to drive learners to the LMS.

A modern LMS for the construction industry boosts learner engagement in many ways.

1. Develop immersive, engaging, and interactive content using AR and VR technologies.
2. Gamified learning motivates learners with virtual rewards. Rewarding learners with badges and points inspires them to pursue learning goals further.
3. Support for microlearning. You can break down complex concepts into tiny, bite-sized modules. For instance, short and snappy quizzes can arouse learner interest.
4. Modern, AI-integrated LMSs help users find relevant courses faster. Based on learner data, AI can personalize content feeds and recommend relevant courses.

How Does a Modern LMS Streamline Construction Training and Development?

A modern LMS simplifies all the essential aspects of your construction training, including:

Course Creation, Editing, Publishing, and Delivery

1. Create, edit, publish, deliver, and easily manage your eLearning courses.
2. Update your construction training content anytime to meet the evolving skilling needs.
3. Develop both self-paced as well as instructor-led courses, based on your learning needs.
4. Design and deliver training content in diverse formats. Enrich your courses by adding videos, text, images, documents, audio clips, and more.

Centralized Content Management

1. One place to manage all your training content and course materials.
2. Organize all your courses within a searchable, centralized course library.
3. A modern LMS is always cloud-hosted. You can access the software anywhere, anytime, on any device.
4. Ensure continuous learning for your workforce. Get reusable and editable content templates to train different batches of learners.
5. Host, manage, and deliver SCORM-compliant course packages. Import SCORM-based content from any third-party LMS to your modern LMS.

Hassle-Free Course Administration

Course Management: Manage all the back-end L&D admin processes from one place. This may include:

1. Course creation and scheduling
2. Assigning courses to learners
3. Allocating trainers
4. Tracking course progress

User Management: Manage learners and learning groups from one place, including.

1. Defining user roles and access permissions based on the organizational hierarchy
2. Managing all learners, both in-office and on-site
3. Creating and managing diverse learning groups
4. Tracking course enrollments

Event Management: Organize and manage virtual learning events. This may include:

1. Scheduling and hosting learning events such as webinars or live training sessions
2. Managing event registrations and participants
3. Sending event notifications or reminders to attendees
4. Tracking event attendance

Mobile LMS for Uninterrupted, Less-Intrusive Training

1. Modern LMSs are mobile responsive. Many offer a separate mobile LMS app for deskless workers, like construction crews.
2. Empower your on-site workforce to learn from anywhere. Encourage learners to meet training goals without interrupting their work schedules.
3. Include more self-paced eLearning courses. Make training burden-free and enjoyable for your construction workforce.
4. Manage your on-site construction crew’s training on the mobile LMS app. No need to insist workers at job sites attend in-office training.

Tracking and Reporting on Training Progress and Performance

1. Modern LMSs provide real-time insights into every aspect of training. You can track course attendance, progress, completion, and learner performance.
2. Identify the most in-demand courses as well as the ones with less traction. It helps you determine what changes you need to make in your training and development.
3. Choose what type of training completion/ progress data you need. Generate customized reports on training progress and learner performance.
4. Use the accurate insights provided by the LMS to make informed L&D decisions.

Mentoring Learners and Sharing Feedback

1. A modern LMS not only imparts training to your construction workforce. It allows you to assign mentors for each learner or learning batches.
2. Mentors can use the LMS to track the learners assigned to them and review their progress.
3. Mentors can guide learners through their learning journey by providing regular feedback.
4. Mentors can recommend courses to learners based on their skilling needs and interests.

What Features Should You Look for in a Modern LMS for Construction Companies?

In my view, a modern LMS for the construction industry meets or even exceeds these criteria:

1. Serves as a trusted learning partner that takes out guesswork from L&D.
2. Streamlines vital L&D processes, from content creation to course certification.
3. Blends technology to make learning more personalized and relevant.
4. Boosts knowledge retention through gamification.
5. Improves learner engagement with diversified content.
6. Mitigates safety risks by creating virtual, lifelike training environments.
7. Makes construction learning engaging, effective, flexible, and fun.
8. Encourages remote training through mobile learning, which is accessible 24/7.

Do you need more reasons to love a modern LMS? Well, let me help you with it. I can tell you why Skill Lake LMS is the right choice to manage your construction training.

How Does Skill Lake Check All The Boxes of a Modern LMS?

Being a modern LMS, Skill Lake offers several innovative features that cannot be found in a legacy LMS. 

Legacy LMS vs. Skill Lake LMS
Feature	Legacy LMS	Skill Lake LMS
AI Personalization	No	Yes
AI Course Builder	No	Yes
AR/ VR Integration	No	Yes
Gamification	No	Yes
Certifications	Limited. No customization of certificates.	Yes (with in-depth customizations)
Content Creation & Publishing	Hard and fast, limited abilities	Yes (Extensive options)
Course Management	Poor	Yes
User Management	Average	Yes
Event Management	No or limited	Yes (Supports hosting virtual learning events)
Multiple Learning Modes	No	Yes (Self-paced, instructor-led, blended, and more)
Mentoring	Only in-person mentoring	Yes (Easy to allocate mentors for each learner)
Tracking & Reporting	Limits visibility	Yes (track progress & performance, share feedback, and more.)
Competency Management	No	Yes
Mobile Learning	No	Yes
Cloud Hosting	No, only on-premises	Yes (Anytime, anywhere, any device access)
Integrations	Hard to integrate	Integrates with any third-party platform such as other LMS, HRMS, and more.
Security	Requirements incur additional costs	In-built, robust security measures
SCORM Compliance	Doesn’t conform to SCORM standards	Compliant with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004

Takeaways

The new-age construction workforce seeks instant gratification and knowledge at their fingertips. They want learning embedded within the flow of their work, not as an ad hoc activity. Switching to a modern LMS, thus, is pivotal to your business’s success and growth.

Skill Lake helps train your construction workers the way you envisage. You can start from scratch or refurbish the content you already have. The choice is up to you.

Want to see how Skill Lake simplifies L&D for your company? Book a demo and see for yourself.