Technology advances at a breathtaking pace. This advancement includes our world of automation and instrumentation. To take full advantage of the capabilities introduced by these technologies, upskilling personnel is paramount.

In this Emerson Automation Experts podcast, Adelina Decean joins me to discuss the importance of this workforce development and the benefits it can deliver in improving operational performance.

Give the podcast a listen and visit the Education Services section on Emerson.com for ways to develop your workforce and improve operations.

Jim: Hi everyone, and welcome to another Emerson Automation Experts podcast. I’m your host, Jim Cahill. As automation technology and digital transformation continue to revolutionize the industry, organizations risk falling behind if they don’t adapt to the changes.

Manual tasks are now being automated and digitalized to achieve new ways of working. When personnel are overwhelmed with data, and their work processes haven’t evolved along with the technology, it can be difficult for them to optimize workflows and processes by integrating digital capabilities in order to achieve quantifiable results.

Emerson Education Services offers innovative, scalable, and customizable training solutions that enable you to strategically use workforce development to sustain growth in highly competitive industries. And to better understand how, Adelina Decean, Education Services Manager for Emerson joins us today.

Welcome, Adelina.

Adelina: Thank you, Jim. It’s great to be here.

Jim: Well, it’s great having you. Let’s open by asking you to share the vision for Emerson Education Services.

Adelina: We envision a world where with an increasingly competitive market, our customers constantly have an ace up their sleeve, thanks to all the knowledge and skills we place at their fingertips.

That means we zero in on the exact piece of knowledge and skills that drive our customers business to new heights at any given time and instantly connect them to it. All our trainers, subject matter experts, developers, engineers are working really hard to make that happen and seek out new solutions to enhance customer learning experience.

We are working with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and agile models of learning in order to give our customers precisely what they need, the very instance they need it, maybe even before they actually need it.

Jim: Wow, that sounds like a lot of effort into anticipating what they’re going to need down the road. With regard to an organization’s human resource needs, how does training help to match these needs?

Adelina: What moves the human resource need is probably the market, but that definitely must be connected to their interests, values, strengths. And it usually is connected to trends as well. So we want to take a good look at all of these and at individual particularities as well when we build our training programs and strategies.

Yes, the human resource is our greatest asset and we can honor this asset by promoting sustainable employability even through training. That means nurturing well being. Human connection while also providing our employees with the opportunities and tools they need to thrive professionally and to keep Emerson the great business that it is.

Jim: Now, from an individual standpoint, how does training position these professionals to meet new demands within their company?

Adelina: With the growth of technology and digitalization, jobs are getting highly specialized and automated. The type of skills required is changing. New digital technologies are disrupting the business landscape with major consequences for how industries are structured and also for how the economic activity occurs. Upskilling and reskilling with education services program can help equip employees with the adaptability, best in class behaviors, and also technology skills to allow them to become more productive and more predictive at the same time. These are also skills that they will need in order to thrive in their jobs and set companies up for continued success.

Jim: I think you hit right on it with all the changes going on in the way we do work. Adaptability is so huge, and the more we have the skills to be able to be adaptable and flexible, it seems like the better it would be. So what are the opportunities for upskilling the current and future workforce?

Adelina: Well, what I can think of is adopting approaches that empower workers to acquire knowledge and experience faster and more effectively.

That would ensure that they can also increase proficiency with the technology and processes with which they interact. One other opportunity is through the collaboration with higher education institutions and the industry itself, which in turn helps. Attract people entering the workforce to the industry, as well as facilitates programs that help to train current and future workers.

Looking at ways to upskill gives you the opportunity to expand on partnerships and also attract top talent. When you invest in your employees, retention will improve because their knowledge and expertise are also increasing. Constantly looking for innovative approaches in training and upskilling provides excitement and interests that grow company success.

Jim: I think you’re right that , they’re more a part of the company as the company is investing with them, that , it’s kind of a mutual thing. Can you describe some of the current skills gap problems and challenges in the industry we serve?

Adelina: Well, we all know that working age population is growing and all talent is retiring in record numbers and the wave of new workers is rising.

Companies are now struggling to find the talent needed to run their plants. So there is a great need to feed a pipeline of new workers that can fill that gap and ensure sustaining growth in highly competitive industries.

Jim: Yeah, so I guess given that, what are some of the benefits of technical training?

Adelina: There are a lot of benefits to undergoing technical training, and just a couple that I can immediately think of are instilling self confidence in your workforce, improving performance, reducing turnover. Also facilitating stronger connection within the teams and within your employees. And last but not least, increasing productivity.

Jim: I can see that forming that collaboration as everybody’s going through it and able to work so much better together. Well, what kind of training works best for new hires? And how would this training differ for senior professionals who may need the upskilling with the newer automation and digital technologies?

Adelina: Well, what they both have in common is the need to have hands on real work experience and in a safe environment. This experience helps them understand the fundamentals of their work. But in the case of mature professionals, they bring a lot of experience to the table. So understanding their specific skill gaps and addressing content for those gaps is most effective.

While for the future generation of workers, we need to understand that digital technologies are native to them. So it is important to utilize innovative learning methods to give them the experience they need, but in the learning style that they prefer to use.

Jim: Yeah, that makes sense that thinking about mature workers already having a lot of experience, so really, tailoring that content for them. So they don’t feel like, I already know this. That seems to be a really important thing. Can you list some of the benefits of having development training plan?

Adelina: A development training plan enables a full range of training options that will arm the workforce with skills that increase their efficiency or helps them stay current with changing technologies as we just discussed.

A development training plan can be used to teach the fundamentals to new employees and college students, but it can also be used to teach more advanced topics. It can also be customized with a specific content that is relevant for a particular customer or plant. And it is also a portable and scalable solution that makes it ideal for various environments, such as classroom setting, directly on the manufacturing facility of the customer, or virtual instructor led sessions, or even online learning.

All of it depending on what fits our customers budget and time better. A development training plan is founded on rigorous IASET practices and policies, where IASET stands for International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training. Our training plan ensures that customers staff will have a high quality experience and that their competencies keep pace with industry innovations.

And last but not least, with the launch of MyTraining, our customers can have maximum flexibility, allowing plants and their employees to choose when, where, and how to take the courses from one convenient location. Want to know more? Stay tuned for the next chapters of Emerson Education Services podcasts.

Jim: We’ll have quite a series coming up around that, and I’m really looking forward to being able to share that with everyone. Well, Adelina, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this exciting information about our approach to training and this MyTraining. Site you alluded to at the end, and we’ll have a link to that area of my training in the transcripts for our listeners to learn more. Thanks again.

Adelina: Thank you, Jim.

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