Re-imagining the post-pandemic world of L&D was the theme of the highly interactive Sharing Best Practice online workshop that EFMD conducted on 28 September in partnership with the CLIP accredited AIA Group. Almost 50 participants joined.

Gyan Nagpal, head of the AIA Leadership Centre (ALC), provided an overview of how leadership development will be a driver of AIA’s corporate transformation, and of how the pre-pandemic online-offline blend in ALC’s programme portfolio will tilt to the digital side in the post-pandemic era, as a result of the learning experience during the pandemic and of a more conscious design process.

Peter Attfield from Jardine Matheson, Igor Baranov from SberUniversity and Philippe Bonnet from EssilorLuxottica shared their plans for bringing (part of) the learning experience back to the face-to-face world in a post-pandemic era. And Lucy Blakemore from HolonIQ discussed global EdTech trends and how investments in digital learning solutions and technology are rapidly accelerating. Venture capital funding in Asia is much more focused on K-12 whereas in Europe workforce solutions are dominant, clearly reflecting the different demographics. The new world of EdTech solutions will enable much more effective online learning and development processes.

Participants discussed in breakout groups what online experiences worked well and are here to stay, and what might move back to face-to-face. The biggest win for online learning was its inclusiveness for teachers and learners with easy access from anywhere and the elimination of travel time and cost. Program elements with a focus on emotions and connections as well as experiential learning will most probably move back to face-to-face delivery. Participants also explored the best ways to involve learners in the design process of the new blended learning solutions. Finally, they shared their happiness and frustrations with a pure digital learning environment and select digital tools throughout the pandemic.

All agreed that the future will be blended again, but this time with online being the default solution and offline requiring a justification – just the other way around it was before the pandemic. Digital upskilling continues to be a priority for learning professionals themselves, especially in light of the plethora of new digital tools coming to market.