Training Certificates In A Corporate Organization: Discussing Their Importance
Assessments are an important part of every eLearning course or module because they help organizations understand how their employees/learners are progressing. But, passing assessments can be somewhat of a hollow victory for learners, as they’ve got nothing to show for it in the end if the organization doesn’t provide learners/employees with a certificate that is. Certification is one of the most important elements of eLearning, or at least it should be. Effective certification is most commonly essential for formal compliance requirements, however, it can be leveraged to increase the uptake and encourage the completion of training. But that’s not it. Certification in eLearning programs is beneficial, and let's see the reasons why below:
1. It Motivates Employees
As mentioned above, employees completing courses and learning new skills in an organization rarely end up with something to show for it. Sure, they learn a new skill, but what tangible proof do they have of that? Awarding learners with certificates when they successfully complete a course gives them a tangible reward they can print, download, or share through their either social networks or in a physical form. Lack of certification leads to a lack of motivation and poor engagement which, in turn, leads to other adverse outcomes for the organization, like high dropout rates and poor application of learning in the workplace. Training certificates provide weightage to eLearning courses, helping learners understand the importance of the organization’s eLearning courses. Certification has been known to increase eLearning course completion by 50%.
2. It Helps Employees Grow Professionally
Apart from the fact that everyone loves to have something that reminds them of their achievement, certificates are great tools for an employee’s professional growth. It lets learners tell the world about their professional development. eLearning course certificates can be added to employee’s/learner’s LinkedIn profile as well as Facebook pages. In addition, training certificates provide employees with credibility, something we talked about at the start of the article. Companies require proof or endorsement from potential new recruits they interview, and by incorporating certificates into your courses, you’ll be providing employees with the proof they need to convince any future companies they join that they’re experts in their field. What’s more, this will convince your present employees that the organization actually cares about their professional development, which it should.
3. It Introduces The Feel Of Actual Education
Most employees do not consider employee training or L&D (Learning and Development) activities like education. And why should they? For most of them, eLearning is a boring convention that they must comply with, or otherwise be penalized by their superiors. Introducing training certificates completely changes the game. Now, what seemed like boring convention suddenly becomes very real. It transports them back to their college days when they had to work hard and pass with good marks, or they wouldn’t get their degree.
4. Certification Is The Only Means Of Continuous Education
eLearning is continuous education, and the only one effective enough in modern times. Consider this: building a fulfilling career in modern times isn’t easy—if it ever was—and requires individuals to change their jobs, and even industries, multiple times throughout their lives. A new job or industry means that a new, different skill set may be required, and how do you build that skillset? Not by going back to college, that’s for sure. eLearning courses help a lot here, particularly when they provide individuals with certificates that endorse their skills. From an organization’s point of view, continuous education is important because modern industries experience frequent change, and thus certificates become an important, nay, essential part of the learning experience. New technologies are being developed every day, and as automation increases, the need for human skills changes drastically with it. Individuals need to be trained over and over for different skills throughout their careers, and certification becomes necessary for these skills.
The benefits of a certificate program leave employees feeling motivated, engaged, and confident in their professional status. Not to mention that they get to chase their dream career without having to go back to school. It is, thus, in the interest of every organization to certify their employees for every skill learned.
In order for your training certificates to be a valued source of credibility, they need to be earned. Organizations need to design their eLearning courses in such a way that learners must first demonstrate their newly found knowledge and abilities and meet a certain standard in doing so before they are awarded a certificate.
