SKILLBUS- VISUALIZATION

Challenge & Selection

We are in a very fast changing world in terms of technology, geopolitical alignments, innovation,  market expectations and many more. Ever changing world needs unpresented skills to survive,  making unlearning-learning-relearning a pressing requirement to be addressed. As a learner and  student, myself, I have experienced this first hand that there is a gap between what you learn in your  college, on the job today, becomes irrelevant in a few years creating a void/ gap in the skills needed  to solve current day business problems. Therefore, the challenge I am considering is, “How might we  create a mentoring framework for continuous skilling to meet existential professional needs?”.

A learner is always, finding it difficult to find a suitable mentor, unclear about the stated credentials  of mentor that is not verifiable, wondering which mentor has updates skills aligning with current  business/ technology trends, concerned about lack of participation from industry practitioners as  mentors & worried about the economies of acquiring new skill.

From a skill learner perspective, as a student myself, I thought thinking visually will give a high-level  overview of the learner and his/ her environment, opportunities for learning, modes of learning.  Also, I thought visualizing the impact of the outcome is also important to determine the means of  learning/ coaching. So, I am selecting one of the Design Thinking technique, Visualization to get rich  understanding of the context, actors involved, scenarios, situation, and actionable insights.

Application

I applied the VISUALIZATION technique to EXPOLRE the overall skilling environment. Listed all modes  of alternatives that skill developers are adopting. Broadly, I could notice that choices are based on  the location of learner, technology access he/ she has and ability to invest in skill development,  based on the expected outcome. I found that the learner approaches had a particular PATTERN of  selecting the sources for training like online training portals, green field trainings, coaching centres,  self-study guides, offline learning material and one-on-one mentoring.

I then IDEATED these approaches with a couple of my classmates, to find the most suitable  framework for skill enablement. We then were able to create a framework in shape of a matrix for  skill seekers to be able to select the right and most optimal approach to get skilled.

We then used this matrix as a PROTOTYPE framework and asked a few of other friends to try it out. I  would say in a way we PILOTTED the approach with a small group to get feedback from them. Our  intention was to SCALE this up and test with a larger group. We collected the data/ information  about their experiences, challenges they faced, suggestions they had for improvisation and rapid  prototyping.

In our visualization frame of mind, we had the trainers, learners, modes of training, criteria for  learning skills, skilling economy (investment vs. ROI), various situations in which a learner perhaps  could be and what would the learning journey of each kind of learner. We had a framework that was  ‘usable’ but not very effective or optimized.

Insight & Approach

I realized that we need to restate/ extend the problem statement as, “How might I improvise the  framework for rapid and effective skilling, to meet marked demands and within the constraints?”

I further explored other Design Thinking methods and I have decided to use few other Design  Thinking tools like, PERSONAS and JOURNEY MAPPING to understand the needs of each learner. We  realized that the learners come from various back ground, maturity levels, varied affordability,  appetite for technology, etc.,. We have decided to use INTERVIEWING technique for gathering  insights from every actor in the scenario for a given situation, to understand the skilling ecosystem  and improve the efficacy of the framework further comprehensively.

