Remote Learning in Education - A change to stay?

he current context has accelerated a massive transformation movement in the way we work, learn and teach, consume and even in the way we make our choices, every day.

In education, and in particular in training for executives and companies, the paradigm shift from face-to-face work to remote work has made it clear that it is possible, in many cases, not only to work effectively at a distance but it is also possible to learn and teach remotely.

It is clear that nothing replaces human contact, but there are some advantages that distance learning offers that should not be ignored: the teaching platforms we use are increasingly interactive and allow a more balanced involvement of all participants, bringing greater diversity and richness of thought to the whole class. The voting systems of these tools make the classroom dynamic more interesting, and it is easier to invite market leaders to be part of the sessions, reinforcing the connection with the business world.

On the one hand, companies are increasingly demanding in the quality of training and desired output. On the other hand, the professionals who come to us individually and recognise the Nova SBE seal of quality are also looking for a return on the investment made in the programmes they have chosen. Faced with these expectations and needs, our teaching staff is incessantly seeking new ways of teaching, becoming more and more an advisor to companies and a mentor to the participants. Also the school's entire staff team, who every day pursue a clear vision which is to "support people and companies to deal with the continuous change in their lives, through high impact and sustainable learning solutions". These and all the other stakeholders involved, be they suppliers, business partners, alumni and the local community, are part of this success.

The desire to work in an increasingly flexible way and the need for companies to further increase their focus on the productivity of their teams requires students, companies and teachers to create a system of continuous requalification so that they can create more value in a much more complex and volatile environment.

In this sense, trainings tend to focus more and more on the individual challenges of executives, seeking to give key tools and skills to thrive in a context of adversity.

Today, most programmes already include a project development component that ensures the transfer of learning to the real context, with teachers increasingly taking on a mentoring role.

All these changes are only possible thanks to our faculty, which represents one of the most important assets of Nova SBE and one of the main reasons for our success. The combination of academic rigour and professional experience in different sectors of activity allows us to offer executives a much more complete learning experience. This diverse background allows the faculty involved in the programs to design them with an increasing orientation to market needs, bringing content and approaches that facilitate the practical application of this knowledge and tools to the day-to-day lives of our programs' participants.

We pride ourselves on having a faculty that is continually looking for new methodologies of learning and teaching, paving the way for the teaching of the future, more focused on impact and sustainability in careers and organisations.

This work resulted in a rise to 6th place worldwide in the "growth" criterion. This unprecedented position in Portugal was achieved thanks, above all, to the realisation of new editions of learning programmes already carried out with companies with whom we already work at Nova SBE Executive Training. This means that there is enormous satisfaction on the part of our clients with the design and delivery of training projects.

More than ever, training is a decisive factor in preparing professionals to deal with the challenges of the future, which arise unexpectedly and with ever greater impact on our lives. We are proud to train thousands of professionals every year, supporting their professional journey in the management of start-ups, SMEs or large organisations. In the same way that the context changes at an exponentially accelerated pace, professionals must also seek continuous requalification, in a life long learning strategy. Leaders, for example, will have to go through a requalification process once again. The potential increase of burnout, as a result of working in isolation, on a continuous journey and without monitoring, is just one of the many variables that once again challenge the leader's mission. Crisis management and scenario development emerge at the top of the table of most requested training courses, making them as common as strategy and finance programmes.

Also on the side of the executives who come to us individually, we have experienced a considerable increase in repeat participants in new executive training programmes. Our belief that professionals should adopt a life long learning strategy has been followed by many, which makes us extremely proud. These are professionals who are now part of our community and we seek to accompany their journey in an increasingly close and personalised manner.

Article originally published by Expresso