If you’re new to creating eLearning content, there’s something you absolutely need to know before you get started – and that’s the importance of storyboarding. Good eLearning courses have one thing in common. They all use effective storyboarding in the development phase.

In fact, many eLearning professionals consider storyboards to be the most important element of online course creation. Why are they so important? Let’s take a look.

Storyboards give you a map of your content

Think of a storyboard as the foundation of your eLearning course, a map that illustrates your ideas and design elements. The storyboard document will clearly show all the visual, text and audio elements of every screen in an online course. The learning objectives of your online course can also be added to this document.

In this way, you use your storyboard to communicate your ideas and objectives to clients and developers. Diving straight into the development phase, without this solid foundation, makes production more difficult for everyone involved.

Storyboarding helps your development team

Having a strong storyboard for your development team to work from will make this phase far more efficient and also make your content flow more easily. The storyboard document will clearly show your programmer, graphic designer, illustrator and narrator exactly what they need to do.

For example, your storyboard may contain notes to developers like what media to be used, what elements get synched with which part of the audio narration, which elements would be clickable, and the resultant reaction. If you have a lot of people working together on your eLearning course, a storyboard will greatly help the collaboration process and keep things in order. As Denielle Richards writes, “the more people involved in the eLearning development process, the more important the storyboarding process becomes.”

“If you are developing courses as a team effort (rather than as a one-man band), then eLearning storyboards are crucial to the process, and I’m not clear exactly how a quality eLearning product could be developed without this important step,” she says.

With this, it’s also a lot easier to see if a concept will come together well – or not! When you show a storyboard to clients, they can easily approve or pass on your concept at this stage, meaning you won’t waste any further time or money in development if the idea isn’t hitting the mark. In the case of complex animations, where it takes a lot of time and budget to develop the final product, it is a good idea to have an approved storyboard from the client first.

You’ll also be improving quality control, as your storyboard will allow you to pick up on any errors and make sure everything flows well, screen by screen. Any dialogue and media elements can be tested in this stage of development. You might even decide to use a pilot, or test, group to see how your concept works with a relevant audience.

Storyboarding allows you to make changes to content

Because your storyboard is like a blueprint of your course materials, it makes it very easy to update content at any time. You can simply edit and update your storyboard document whenever you like, as your one central file. This means you don’t have to worry about different versions or any confusion.

This is also very useful if you want to easily translate your eLearning course into another language at some point in the future.

How to create a storyboard for your eLearning course

Now you know the benefits of using a storyboard when creating your course, you might be wondering how to get started.

Connie Malamed, writing for The eLearning Coach, outlines the four main ways to go about creating a visual storyboard:

Create a template in Word (in landscape mode) and let each page represent one screen

Create a template in PowerPoint and let each slide represent one screen

Create a template in a commercial storyboarding application

For the rapid development approach, begin writing the course directly in the authoring tool, such as Storyline, Captivate, Articulate Presenter, iSpring Presenter or any of the other hundred tools. In some tools, you can write the script and other notes in the Notes section below the slide. This integrates storyboarding with actual development.

You then choose the multimedia elements you will incorporate into your eLearning course, such as videos, audio clips and graphics, and describe each element in the corresponding part of your storyboard. Make sure you leave room on each screen for these elements – simply note their position on the page with a quick sketch or text description.

As you can see, storyboarding is a very powerful development tool for creating online content. Using storyboards in eLearning production will save you time, money and potential stress later down the track.

Want to discover more about what storyboarding can do for your eLearning? Enroll in this free online course, Instructional Design Essentials: Storyboarding, for more best practice tips on using text, mockups, and rapid-prototyping tools for storyboarding. You’ll learn how to publish your project, incorporate feedback and share storyboards with others.

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Why storyboarding is important for eLearning development

As organizational leaders, it’s important for CEOs to support and champion employee training programs, and getting them on board with your plan is critical for success. Knowing how to talk to your CEO about training could be the difference between implementing a successful program, or being stuck with sub par development.

If you’ve been tasked with developing a training strategy, as a manager or HR professional, it’s important that you seek direct input from your CEO. You might think that chief executives are too busy to bother with these kinds of conversations, but it’s in the company’s best interest to have a CEO that provides input and feedback on this area.

By being directly involved in the company’s learning and development strategy, your organizational leaders can help to ensure that staff are equipped with the right skills and being supported in their professional development. To help you feel more comfortable discussing with your CEO about training, here are some points you may like to consider.

Discussing the organizational benefits of training

Before you approach the subject with your CEO, put some time into thinking about the benefits of training for both employees and the organization as a whole. What are the company’s priorities and goals? How will training help to actively support these goals?

CEOs will want to know that they’re getting a good return on investment for the money that is invested in training, so you should be able to identify and outline these benefits. If you’re not sure how to start the ball rolling, take this suggestion from Forbes in 5 Things You Should Be Talking To Your Boss About. You could say something like, “I’ve noticed that our new hires aren’t picking up on the new CRM program very easily. I’d love to put together some training documentation to help them learn it a little quicker. Here’s a quick outline I threw together—what do you think?”.

Eoghan Quigley, writing for eLearning Industry, agrees that for CEOs “prioritizing the development of their employees provides one of the biggest returns. Making sure that the culture is strong, that people are learning, and that they know we’re investing in them every day is always ROI positive”. Keep referring back to the organizational benefits of training when meeting with your CEO.

Talk to your CEO about bridging the skills gap

You can also discuss the importance of training in helping to bridge the skills gap in your organization. The skills gap is a challenge and concern for many modern companies, with a mismatch between the skills that employers want and need, and the skills that workers actually have. This mismatch, or gap, can be addressed through ongoing training.

Quigley looks at telecommunications giant AT&T as an example of a CEO who recognizes that ongoing training is essential for the success of a company and its employees. Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and chief executive, is reported to have said that employees who do not spend five to ten hours a week in online learning “will obsolete themselves with the technology”.

With ongoing training, leaders can make sure staff are equipped to deal with any changes in technology and the industry, while continually improving their skill sets and contributing to the success of the company. As Quigley says, while CEOs are responsible for setting long-term strategy and short-term goals for a company, “it will be employees that will execute against this strategy and these goals”.

Encourage your CEO to invest in eLearning

Telling your CEO that company staff need more training will go down a lot better if you can also offer a solution at the same time. What training tools and methods can you include in your strategy, that are up-to-date, effective, and provide good value for money?

One of the best ways for employees to learn new skills, or improve existing ones, is through online courses and eLearning. In fact, eLearning has become the most popular way to perform workplace training these days, with online training courses proving to be a very successful and effective way for staff to receive ongoing learning and development. A massive 77% of American companies are already offering online corporate training to their staff, with this figure likely to continue to grow throughout 2017.

With eLearning, you can significantly reduce the costs of training by removing the need for room hire, travel, trainers and facilitators, and other associated costs of traditional training methods. Outline these facts in your discussion, to show the potential benefits of online training for the company. By being prepared with some clear statistics, facts, and viable training solutions, you can have a far more open and productive conversation with your CEO.

This article was originally published on elearningindustry.com

Ensuring that your employees are keeping up to date with their qualifications can be a tough task, and failure to do so can result in a costly fine. To make compliance easier for businesses across the world, Go1 has teamed up with workforce automation solution specialists, Tanda.  

Integrating administration tasks such as qualification management and employee scheduling, leads to a more efficient, productive and compliant workforce. This provides peace of mind and compliance comfort for business owners. As a result, you know that you’ll always have the best person for the job, as they have the required skillset and are the most cost effective fit for the role.

[caption id="attachment_3044" align="alignleft" width="284"] Liam Scanlan, Partnerships Director at Tanda[/caption]


The partnership between Go1 and Tanda provides several benefits to organizations including the tracking of qualifications and compliance training (certificate numbers, completion dates, expiry dates, etc.), as well are providing a simple searchable display of qualifications for position types  - This makes  it easy to onboard team members or fill shifts.

"Tanda is a world-class solution  for workforce compliance, and Go1 has a great platform to help our customers achieve compliance and upskill goals."  says Nadia Sommer, Head of Strategic Growth & Enterprise Solutions at Tanda.  

As leaders in their field, Tanda is the first workplace management solution to fully integrate with a training provider. Previously, separate systems were required which has led to information being missed, and management needing to be trained on how to use multiple platforms to find a single answer.

Tanda is an award-winning workforce automation software solution. Founded in Brisbane, Australia in 2012, Tanda is helping businesses to gain greater clarity, control and insight into their workforce management. 

Tanda streamlines employee rostering, time and attendance, leave management, Award and EA interpretation and payroll integration in one powerful solution. Empowering managers with the correct tools to manage their workforce, leads to more engaged staff, smarter data-driven decisions, peace of mind, and higher productivity and profitability.

Go1 teams up with Tanda to simplify qualification compliance

Whether you’re a professional looking to enhance your coaching skills or an expert leader who wants a refreshing approach to helping others, the Coaching Skills course is the one for you. This course takes a unique attitude to coaching and turns traditional ideas on their heads, giving a whole new viewpoint on how we can make the most of our coaching experience.

Traditional ideas of coaching may work in some areas, but the long-term results from this type of friendly and sometimes over-supportive mentoring aren’t always clear. The Coaching Skills approach gives you a completely unique take on how to be the best coach possible so that you get the full potential from your employees.

When you think about coaches you’ve experienced in the past, whether it was someone at work in a supervisory role or a football coach during college sports, you’ll likely remember straight away if they were effective or not. A good coach should have a lifelong impact on us, and not necessarily with a friendship formed, but with the valuable lessons taught.

Coaching can be extremely effective, but maybe not necessarily in the traditional sense you might be thinking. This course helps you become a memorable leader to someone, giving you the skills and knowledge to get their absolute best from them. In turn, you’ll be able to witness sustained performance improvement in the workplace.

But what does the process entail and how is it different?

The Coaching Skills course focuses on a modern approach to coaching, called FACTS. This approach was developed by Ian Day and John Blakey in their book, “Challenging Coaching: Going beyond traditional coaching to face FACTS.” The book explains how most forms of coaching used in the workplace are outdated and shows you a new and improved way of coaching others.

So, what is the FACT approach to coaching?

F – Feedback - This course shows you how to overcome your fear of giving feedback, which can often hold managers back from getting real results and seeing a change from their employees.

A – Accountability – How being held accountable in the workplace can make you far more likely to succeed in your goals.

C – Courageous Goal Setting – Rather than setting easy goals that you know you’ll be able to accomplish with ease, the FACTS approach teaches you to be courageous so that you work even harder to achieve them.

T – Tension  - You’ll learn how to create healthy tension so that you keep employees on their toes at all time and ready for anything.

S – Systems Thinking – The FACTS approach gets you to look at coaching process from a systemic and holistic point of view.

There’s really no limit to who can benefit from this course, so whether you’re an absolute beginner in the world of management and coaching or a seasoned professional, you’ll receive tons of value. As the course challenges traditional styles and methods of coaching, it’s especially ideal for those seasoned professionals who are looking for a more effective way to get things done.

The FACTS coaching approach is intended for those at management and board levels, however, there’s nothing stopping an ambitious worker from learning what they can to be an effective leader in the near future.

If you feel that your coaching could do with improvement, or just aren’t getting the results you had hoped from your employees, it’s time for a new approach. FACTS could be exactly what you are looking for to light a fire under your staff and improve your business out of sight.

Some might say that great leaders are born, the truth is that great coaches must be taught. Although the traditional sense of the word “coach” often leads us to think of a friendly and supportive mentor who teaches us various valuable skills and knowledge in a very specific way, the modern version may look a little different.

If we hope to stay ahead in the world of business or need a boost in our personal lives, our best strategy is to educate ourselves on a continuous basis. It’s impossible to stay on top of innovative and changing approaches to training in the workplace without a constant education, and this course can provide just that.

The FACTS approach to coaching will completely revolutionize the way you look at how you get results from others and will guarantee you an exceptional improvement in those you coach. Think about it: when we learn how to give constructive feedback and create a healthy tension in others, we can truly harness their full potential.

This course is delivered in an enjoyable and interactive format, full of animated videos, stories, activities, and takeaways. This method of content delivery harnesses what we have found to be the most effective form of online learning, and ensures a far higher success and retention rate than traditional classroom learning.

When you become a truly effective coach at work, your managerial skills grow exponentially. If you are looking for better solutions to engage, inspire, and lead your teams, this course might be right for you.

Move beyond the limits of traditional coaching

For those in the business of selling online courses and education, you’ll understand that it can be a lot harder than it seems to be regarded as one of the best.

So, how can you get your name out there and show potential students that you’re offering a quality course in a crowded market? There are a few basic things to check off before you get to the final stage of marketing your course, and they’re a lot simpler than you might have thought.

With these tips under your belt, you can be confident in your ability to sell courses and promote your unique elearning experience:

Before you can even begin to think about the content of your courses, you should first understand who your potential audience is. When you imagine a virtual classroom full of new students, what is it they are there to learn? Why do they want to learn it, and what is their end goal for what they want to achieve?

Think also about the various walks of life they might come from, and ensure that you’re molding the course content to meet the right demographics. One of the best features of elearning is the flexibility it offers students, which means it can be adapted to suit just about any background.

Research published in Forbes found that employees these days are craving a more flexible work-life balance—and this includes their workplace training and education—so you need to make it fit for everyone. By getting a clear picture of the intended audience, you can then work on creating your quality content.

While it’s all well and good to promote yourself as a serious contender in the elearning space, without the quality content in your courses you simply won’t gain much traction. If you promote yourself as the next big thing in online courses and then fail to see through your promises, your business reputation can suffer.

There are a few simple ways to ensure you have quality content and if you can answer yes to each of these questions then you’ll be on the right track:

Are there clear objectives and learning outcomes in your course content?

Can the information be easily absorbed by a student?

Does the course come in a range of interactive materials to keep students engaged?

Do you repeat the key points and objectives throughout the syllabus?

Can this course be accessed by people from all different walks of life, and with the freedom to study where and when they choose? 

These few questions identify the markers of a good online course, and when you know that yours ticks all of the boxes it’ll be even easier to sell it to potential students (and investors too!) Not only will your course content need to be engaging, but it should give the learner something they can’t get anywhere else.

With thousands of online courses popping up every day, imagine how confusing it can be for a potential student to separate the good content from the bad—so to be successful you may need to have a unique edge or offer that can’t be matched by competitors.

Think about your company: do the staff offer something unique with their years of experience? Are you taking a new approach to elearning that hasn’t been done before? Have you found an untapped area of the market that you believe will make you the next big thing?

This is where you need to pool it together and come up with something special that your brand can offer, so understanding the space you are in is extremely important.

While it’s all well and good to have your own course up and ready, you need to understand online courses and how these digital classrooms differ from traditional education means. Whether it’s for workplace training or personal study reasons, you should have hard data to prove why this medium is growing in popularity.

For example, studies have shown that a third of managers believe their current digital learning offerings do not suit what their company believes in and therefore they fail to use it as often as they should.

This is a huge indicator for the need to have more specific course content to suit your intended audience. Once you have your content, and the facts and figures to back it up, you’re able to promote your learning experience much more effectively.

Now that you have your online courses ready to sell, you should address your marketing strategy. Since your students will be learning on a digital platform, this is a great place to engage with them.

Use social media, a dedicated website, a blog, and more to keep your online presence known, even when you aren’t actively promoting your course. Always stay in touch with potential students during and after a sale to let them know you’re truly invested in their success.

A market research report recently announced that the global elearning market is set to grow over 17% over the next 3 years, so it’s a smart area to be on board with.

However, without the right know-how behind your brand and an understanding of exactly what you offer your students, your venture will flounder. Follow the steps we’ve laid out for you here and things will be much smoother sailing in the long run!

Tips that will help you sell more online courses

On Thursday Match 2nd The Bay Area Learning Design & Technology Meetup group met for the first time in 2017. Rather than just having speakers appear at our meetups, we run a range of events across the year to create an interactive and collaborative environment in which all of our members have a voice. Leaning on one of our most popular themes from the previous year, we kicked things off with a Themes From a Hat event.

Themes From a Hat is an interesting format. We have all attendees vote on which topics that they would like to learn more about prior to the meetup taking place, and then on the night - the top 4 most popular topics will form breakout groups in which discussions are moderated by industry leaders. The night is composed of 4 15 minute sessions, allowing all members to experience each group and contribute to the discussion.

For this meetup the topics were LMS, Measuring Learning, Social Learning and Learning design.

Given my experience in Learning Management System, I was given the task of moderating that particular group and wanted to share some of the findings from the discussion.

To kick things off and get the conversation flowing I posed a few questions to the group to learn more about their experience with learning management systems:

What experiences users having with their current platforms

Before we even get started, leading a discussion around LMS can be tough as for a lot of members in the group – they are frustrated with their current platform. The positive side of this is that this group can share ways in which to improve the way that they use their system.

While there were a number of members that we’re not having a good experience with their current LMS, we did find out a few features that people we’re excited about. The first of these was being able to sync up their LMS with their HR management system to ensure that user data is automatically transferred between to the two platforms.

The second item was around gamifying the experience and offering rewards. The ability to distribute badges to user upon reaching a goal (completing a course or a series of courses) was one of the most popular aspects for some people in the group.

From here the conversation shifted from what people like about their LMS, to what new or existing features should be developed to improve the learning experience.

One of the key elements that arose from this part of the discussion was the lack of customization in reporting. While reporting is available in all systems, the options available do not provide the range of data in which L&D managers need to adequately track and asses the success of both the content and program they run.

After the introduction of online courses, classroom learning initially took a downturn, however blended learning is now starting to make it’s way into most companies, but tracking a learners progress across both the classroom and online components of their training is still tough in a number of systems. Being able to do this all in the one platform would be a great addition for managers.

A lot of our members are generating their own content as it has been too difficult to purchase and import outside content into their platform, but with the increased amount of content now available through subject matter experts – being able to import these courses into their platform would be a huge advantage and something that administrator are looking forward to being a standard feature in the future.

In the 4 groups that had discussions throughout the evening there was at least one person in each group who was a complete newcomer to learning management systems. To help these people understand more about the uses of LMS’s we opened up the floor for discussion around what are the key factors that should be considered when selecting a new LMS provider.

Easy to create custom content and import purchased content

If you can ensure that these features are included in your selection process you are going to have a much smooth learning process from implementation all the way through to managing and tracking learners.

As you can see, we have some great insights form the conversations that took place at the meetup and we can see some clear patterns around what people want to see happening in the LMS space. Hopefully as organizations continue to develop we will see more learning management systems taking these items on board and providing a great learning experience for everyone involved.

If you would like to join or learn more about the Bay Area Learning Design & Technology Meetup click here

What do people want from their Learning Management System?

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to keep your staff safe and protected in the workplace, including staying up to date with recent rulings and decisions made by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This organization is committed to providing a safe workplace for all Americans, and they constantly look for ways to modernize and improve laws surrounding our work environments.

The US Department of Labor hands down final rulings on new workplace regulations to OSHA, so it’s up to the employer to stay educated on any changes. Although 2017 has only just begun, there are quite a few new rulings in place which came in over the last 12 months that could affect your workplace this year. Here we take a look at them and what kind of implications they could have for your employees.

After it was found that exposure to beryllium can cause dangerous lung diseases and possibly fatalities, it was imperative to put new measures in place regarding safe exposure in the workplace. Because many workplaces use this material, in particular shipyards, construction, and general industry environments, the rules have recently changed.

In January this year, OSHA ruled that the exposure time now allowed with beryllium will remain as eight hours, but that now there was only to be 0.2 micrograms of beryllium per cubic meter be allowed. When compared to the previous 2.0 micrograms limit, these changes aim to save the lives of over 94 workers per year. As beryllium is still an extremely useful resource in many industries, this drastic measure was crucial.

Traditionally, workplaces had to provide one set standard for fall systems in place. As studies have found that far too many injuries and fatalities were caused in this area, OSHA has now ruled that each worker can be responsible for selecting their own personal fall protection system. Other changes include prohibiting body belts as a personal fall arrest system and mandatory training on personal fall protection systems now be in place.

With the change set to affect 112 million workers at sites across the country, it’s one of the largest amendments to OSHA regulations in recent times. The prediction from this change is that 29 lives will be saved each year, and over 5,842 injuries prevented just by these small measures.

Protective equipment is a mandatory requirement for almost all workplaces, even those in the blue collar sector. However, workers in shipyards, long shoring, construction, general industry, and marine terminals now have new regulations in place about their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

The final ruling included a number of changes to the previous legislation, including now allowing employees to choose their own protective equipment provided it complied with the industry standard. All other changes related to face and eye protection specifically, as an area which receives a large percentage of injuries each year in the workplace.

The Importance of Educating Your Employees

Mail out – a simple email directed to all staff members whenever a change might occur in your industry is a quick and easy way to keep everyone informed.

Newsletter – have a dedicated OSHA section on your company newsletter so that people can keep up to date with any changes that might affect their job.

Bulletin board – a basic notice in the office boardroom or kitchen so that people can be reminded of OSHA updates during their lunch break.

Orientation and training – any important occupational health and safety information should be covered off in orientation and training, so ensure this is updated with the latest developments too.

SMS updates – sending a simple text message through your company software is a modern and succinct way to communicate important changes to staff.

Intranet – posting regular updates to the company’s main hub on the intranet means staff can stay informed as changes happen, as well as always have a dedicated place to visit should they want to touch up on their OSHA knowledge.

The best place to keep up to date with changes to occupational health and safety laws is directly through the OSHA website. They regularly update the website with media releases regarding rulings and new regulations in place, and it’s an essential resource for both employers and employees.

If you’re not able to keep a regular eye on their website, you can set up alerts to notify you whenever a press release is published. This way, you know every small change and ruling directly as it happens so that you can pass this information onto your employees.

2017 should be the year that you make occupational health and safety an important area of your workplace. Find new ways to involve staff in learning, have a detailed and up to date training system in place for new employees and ask for feedback from your colleagues on how you can better improve the health and safety conditions of the workplace. With a little bit of proactivity, you can avoid future disasters altogether.

What you need to know about OSHA compliance

In 2017, many people believe that gender equality has been achieved. However, a recent investigation by Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, has found this is not the case.

Through her research, Jenkins found that while members of the community may not actively be working against gender equality, many people across Australia are of the idea that it’s already been attained – “which means there is no real motivation for people to do things differently or to promote women or highlight their stories,” she says.

We’ve recently discussed some of the challenges faced by women in the workplace, including the under-representation of women in leadership and the technology industry. To recap, in terms of leadership women make up only 5% of ASX 200 CEOs, with senior female managers earning $93,000 less per year, on average, than their male equivalents. Women are also still significantly outnumbered when it comes to working in STEM-related studies and careers, making up only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in 10 engineering graduates.

As the chief executive of the Diversity Council Australia, Lisa Annese, believes that “we are undoubtedly not making the most of the talent that we know is out there in the community. We really need to look hard at what biases, either conscious or unconscious,” are occurring in the workforce.

So what can we do to accelerate gender equality? How can we encourage greater empowerment of women in the workplace?

Take Steps to Address Gender Bias in Your Workplace

This year, through International Women’s Day, women are encouraged to “call on the masses or call on yourself to help forge a better working world – a more inclusive, gender equal world.”

The International Women’s Day website has excellent suggestions for how individuals – women, men and non-binary people – can create positive change within their own spheres of influence. Some of these suggestions can be used to address gender bias in the workplace, such as:

mentoring a woman and sponsoring her goals

If you’re an employer, manager or CEO, you’re in a position of power and can have a direct influence over the way female employees are treated within your organisation. Read our previous article for more tips for how you can accelerate gender parity to make sure you’re creating an equitable work environment.

Develop a Strong Policy Around Sexual Harassment 

Employers also have a responsibility to create a safe and positive environment for all staff. And as an individual, you have the right to work in a non-threatening work environment, free from any form of harassment.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2012 survey told us that 1 in 4 women (25%) have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2017, sadly, we are still seeing high statistics in this area.

Make sure the organisation you work for has an effective strategy that prevents and addresses workplace harassment. Read about the importance of sexual harassment policies in the workplace to find out how you can make more of a difference in how your staff think about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Encourage Confidence and Assertiveness in the Workplace

Another challenge women face in the workplace is gender stereotyping. Frustratingly, many women are criticised for being confident and assertive in the workplace “as this goes against ingrained feminine stereotypical behaviours.”

A recent article in the Guardian highlighted the current reality for Australian women at work – with women being “underpaid, discriminated against and told to be more confident.” The article states that women are twice as likely as men to receive feedback indicating they need to show “more confidence” to be ready for promotion.

Yet how can women show that they feel confident in taking on a leadership role, or being promoted, when it’s likely they’ll receive criticism for that confidence? This catch-22 prevents many female employees from receiving the recognition and salary they deserve, while also continuing to perpetuate existing stereotypes about the role of women in society.

Work to promote an organisational culture where women’s confidence is respected, rather than criticised.

Promote Ongoing Discussion Around Gender Equality

International Women’s Day means different things to different people – for many, it’s a celebration of female achievement; for others, it's a call-to-action to continue fighting for gender equality.

By actively working to empower women in your workplace, you'll be playing a part in accelerating gender parity. It's also important to keep these discussions going, all year, if we want to get closer towards achieving equality. With continual, ongoing action in this area you can help to drive better outcomes for women and change lives around the world.

How you can empower women in the workplace

Gone are the days when classrooms and studying were reserved for children and young adults, with a wave of older learners increasing and changing the landscape of the education system forever. More and more adults these days are enrolling in studies, whether it be for personal gain, a career move, or to learn more about their current role.

So, what constitutes an adult learner? Generally speaking, we class anyone over the age of 24 as an adult learner, and there’s really no limit to when you can stop. As older students can gain a whole range of benefits from studying when compared to their younger counterparts, we’ve compiled some fascinating facts about adult learning. It just might be the news you’ve been looking for to motivate you toward your next exciting chapter.

Studies have found that learning when you’re over 60 can have amazing effects on the brain. For older students, engaging in study is not only great for their minds but can help them socialize too. With many older people feeling isolated, particularly as they leave the workforce, enrolling back into study can be a great way to connect with like-minded people.

With a great deal of learning nowadays done online, these virtual classrooms offer a unique blend of students so that you can meet people from all walks of life. Older students, international learners, stay at home mothers, and more now make up what a regular classroom looks like. So, just how many students these days fall into the adult learner category?

According to the US Department of Education study conducted in 2012, the statistics for what a normal student looks like these days has changed quite significantly, with adult learners making up 40% of undergraduate students. That number is expected to have grown significantly since then, with a previous 4% increase since 2008 indicating a huge shift in student’s ages.

These numbers show that although younger people still make up the majority of students, more and more students over 24 are interested in improving themselves. Whether it’s for a job promotion, career change, or personal interest, these statistics show that the thirst for knowledge doesn’t just disappear when you turn 24.

A Large Majority of Adults Are Personal Learners

When you hear the word student you automatically assume someone who is pursuing an education to better themselves academically or for a career move. However, it’s been shown that up to 74% of adult learners are studying for personal reasons.

The world of education has changed significantly over the last 20 years, with a greater shift towards online and digital learning. This has given people greater freedom to study than ever before and allowed for a much more personalized approach to education. In a digital classroom, nobody knows your age regardless, so there’s no need feel left out of the pack.

Whether you’re looking to get ahead at work, try an entirely new field altogether, or just want to learn more about a topic that interests you, you’re never too old to learn something new. As an added bonus, you’ll also be schooled on new technologies so that you can stay in the loop with trends in the digital age, and be introduced to a range of like-minded and diverse students.

Top facts about adult learning: it’s never too late to start

We recently took a look at the under-representation of women in leadership and the lack of equality this brings to the global workforce.

As we celebrated and acknowledged International Women’s Day, it was also important to draw attention to the under-representation of women in the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths – known as STEM. Unfortunately, in 2017 women are still significantly outnumbered when it comes to working in STEM-related studies and careers, making up only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in 10 engineering graduates.

Many organisations are doing their best to address this gender imbalance, yet more work is needed to dismantle the unconscious bias that often exists towards women in these industries. How then, can we accelerate gender parity and move towards a more equal and diverse workforce?

Supporting the Education of Women in STEM 

Championing women’s education is a large part of addressing gender disparity. In support of this, the Australian Government recently announced $3.9 million in funding to 24 organisations to rollout projects that will encourage girls and women to study and pursue careers in STEM.

One of these organisations is Melbourne-based Girl Geek Academy, an Australian startup actively working to inspire and engage more young girls in technology and coding. Through its one-day events, online training and ongoing support, Girl Geek Academy aims to increase early awareness and participation of girls and women in STEM.

We talked to co-founder Tammy Butow about her motivation for creating Girl Geek Academy and her own experience working in the tech industry as an engineer and Site Reliability Engineering Manager at Dropbox.

The Under-Representation of Women at Tech Events

Tammy attended her first hackathon in 2009, flying up to Sydney from Melbourne for the OpenAustralia Hack Weekend at Google. At the event, she noticed there were hardly any women at all.

“I wondered why there were not many women at the event while I was there. I thought it was tons of fun and I was able to learn so much in a compressed weekend. It was awesome having engineers from Google and other companies offer to teach and share their knowledge,” Tammy says.

On returning to Melbourne, she decided to create her own events and workshops for women to learn.

“I went back to Melbourne and in 2011 I started running programming workshops. Over the years, I got more and more practice and met other women who were passionate about improving the world too. I decided to ask them to create a new company with me called Girl Geek Academy, asking Sarah, April, Lisy and Amanda to be my co-founders.”

As Tammy explains, each founder brings their own awesome and unique skills to the company.

Inspiring Girls and Women Across Australia to Learn Coding

Miss Makes Code – the world’s first hackathon for 5-8 year old girls

SheHacksVic – a hackathon for women who are hackers, hustlers and hipsters to get together and launch their own business or build something really innovative

Promoting Gender Equality in the Tech Industry

“Yes certainly. I have also experienced it myself and there is a ton of research to support this. It's important to call things out when they happen. I practice calling out horrible things that happen to me or other women each day. With practice, you will get more comfortable calling things out,” she says.

“If you do not feel safe calling out the person directly then try to tell somebody you trust. Find out if your company has a HRBP (HR Business Partner) or EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Take time to get to know your HR team so you can understand how they can support you. Many companies have a confidential EAP you can use.”

Tammy also believes men must play a role in addressing gender bias in the workplace and becoming better champions for equality. She recommends following the Twitter account Better Male Allies (@betterallies) for great advice on how to support your female colleagues, and taking a few moments to watch the videos on malechampionsofchange.com.

With one last question, we asked Tammy for her top tip for young girls and women who are keen to pursue a career in the tech industry.

“Don't settle for a bad workplace or bad mentors,” she says. “Find amazing people that will support you and help you learn and grow. They are out there.

“Come along to our Girl Geek Academy events to meet amazing people that will help you grow. We are a friendly and welcoming community. We have connections to companies where they do not tolerate harassment or workplace bullying. We can help you be a great engineer.”

Girl Geek Academy: supporting women in technology

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